Prophecy of the Twelve Maidens
by FlutteringShadows
Summary: An evil force is collaborating together to use an event that happens every 2,000 years to gain control of the universe. combining the worlds of RE, LOZ, FFX, KH, DMC, SO:Till the end of time, FFXII, and FFIX. It seems silly, but please read and review!
1. Introduction

Hey guys! The fanfic you have chosen to read is in fact the Prophecy of the Twelve Maidens. It is the first fanfic I have ever posted but not the first I have ever written. This fanfic is an idea I have had for almost four years now (pretty much my whole high school career). It combines the worlds of Resident Evil, The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy X, XII, IX, Kingdom Hearts, Devil May Cry, and Star Ocean: Till the end of time. It might sound a little weird and a little like I'm over-doing it but trust me, it all makes for a really cool adventure/romance story! I had already written Chapters 1-10 when I decided that they needed more content and that the story needed to change, the version you are about to read has been rewritten, revised and took days to think up the content for, so I advise you to read as much as you please or don't please and review as much as possible, feedback on my writing is always appreciated! =D

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Disclaimer: I do not own any of the video games or products, Television shows, movies or vehicles mentioned in this story.

Long ago, in ancient times when darkness ruled the land and light was all but banished, heroes of unlikely sides stood up against injustice and banished the evil back into the dark realm. Twelve maidens of prophetic power were freed from their evil bondage, and the realm of light descended upon the land once again. The maidens and heroes were all from separate worlds, each of them of different abilities and powers, yet each of them held a heart within them that burned with the guiding light of righteousness and the path of justice was all but lying before their very eyes. The heroes may have descended from many different worlds, but all worlds shared the same sky. And so each of them were bound to a maiden of prophecy by holy matrimony to keep the peace for the next two millennia until the next maidens were born underneath that prophetic light.

Note: protection of a maiden of prophecy is vital, if she is taken into the wrong hands, it could mean the end of peaceful tranquility as we know it. An evil doer who binds a maiden into holy matrimony and compromises her before the stroke of midnight at the end of the year could inherit all of her prophetic powers and become an entity of destruction that would bring upon the death of these lands. Furthermore, if a being of evil intentions were to absorb the power of every maiden, they would then be known as the most powerful being in the universe. However, if heroes from different worlds were to come together and combine their abilities for the greater good, the being could possibly be thwarted.

How to Recognize a maiden of Prophetic Light

If a maiden can bathe in the sunlight without burning or tanning, she is truly a maiden of Prophetic Light. The maiden's skin however must be flawless which means no freckles or any other type of blemish may grace the skin.

The maiden must have a blind sense of justice in the way that she will stand up for what she believes to be right no matter what the cost.

A maiden will sacrifice herself for the greater good.

The maiden's heart must be pure and full of light and devoid of darkness. The maiden cannot enjoy doing evil deeds, unless she knows it will cause no harm.

The maiden must be a virgin at the time of her union or the prophecy will be void.

The maiden will be able to sing with the radiance of an angel, if she sings like a beast or some other ghastly creature she is definitely not a maiden of prophetic light.


	2. What's Past is Past

Disclaimer: If I owned them, I would lose the determination to find out what happens next; I would already know!

Chapter 1

What's Past is Past

"_**...feranno dei cimiteri le loro cattedrali e delle citta le vostre tombe."**_

_**-Dario Argento-**_

_**(For the cemeteries shall be their cathedrals, and the cities shall be your tombs.)**_

**LEON'S DRIVE TO THE WHITE HOUSE WAS MURDER.**

The several road blocks he'd come across and the major traffic jams made him conclude that it was indeed the holiday season. It was December 5th, a week from Black Friday, Christmas would be coming in just a few weeks. The President's relatives were going to be visiting which meant that his work load was going to be doubled.

He had been working at the Pentagon for almost a year now on a project the President had assigned him. He had been assigned to help research the las plagas of Spain and to try and track down the woman who held the last remaining sample in the world, Ada Wong.

So far they had been thwarted, led off into one direction to realize it was the incorrect direction.

When he reached the gates of the White House he paused, staring up at the capitol of his great nation, pride coursing through him when he was reminded that he was like so many before him, willing to risk his life for his country. Those white walls held so much history, every President elected after George Washington had lived inside of those walls, deciding the future of the nation and the presidency.

Leon reached inside of his glove box, pulling out his card-key. He slipped it into the electronic lock to gain access inside. The gates parted before him and he was free to drive up to the entrance. He parked his black Mustang in the driveway and walked through the opened door before being received by the metal detection crew.

"Is this really necessary?" He asked as they patted him down for the hundredth time to make sure he wasn't rigged with explosives. He remembered the time when he'd brought his Starbucks Frappuchino into the White House, they said they had to confiscate it to make sure it wasn't tainted with arsenic or liquid nitrogen. Man was he pissed...

"Sorry Kennedy, President's rules, nobody's getting past this door without being properly searched." When he was done, Leon grabbed his coat and headed for the sitting room. Not surprisingly, Ingrid Hunnigan was there to greet him.

"Agent Kennedy! I wondered when I'd be seeing you again." She smiled happily. He scoffed,

"Miss me?" He asked. She smiled cooly, remembering the date she'd gone on with him a year ago. Just thinking about it made her vibrate with rage.

"Not for a second." She replied, frowning. She handed him a cup of the dreaded White House coffee, almost making Leon forget her remark when he smelt the aroma of burnt coffee beans. He grimaced, _**'Seriously,'**_ he thought,_** 'who in the world burns coffee?'**_ He set it down on the nearby table.

"Well anyway, I was wondering why the President suddenly cancelled our trip back to Spain and called me back here, is something wrong?" He inquired, getting down to business.

"Of course not, why would you think that?"

"He cancelled my assignment Hunnigan...so I would assume something was wrong."

"Well if so, I haven't heard anything about it, he probably just wants you around during the holidays, you know to watch over his family, it is his last year in office you know, unless he gets reelected anyway..."

"That doesn't make sense, I wasn't invited to the Christmas party last year..." Ingrid shrugged,

"I don't know, maybe he wanted to give you a little time off, I mean you **have** been working non-stop for almost a year now.." She reasoned, taking a sip of her coffee.

'_**Has it really been that long?' **_he thought, he supposed it had, but he'd just lost track of the time what with the seriousness of his mission and all...but because of the seriousness of it, it made no sense why President Graham would just up and cancel his assignment. Ingrid stood there staring at him for a few minutes before she finally said something.

"Is that stain on the floor very interesting?" She chuckled, snapping him from his thoughtful trance. He shook his head,

"Uh, sorry about that, when is my appointment?" He asked, his face flushed from embarrassment. She sighed.

"Hopefully in just a few minutes, I'll inform President Graham that you've arrived. But you may have to wait longer than usual, he has been having catering issues lately and he may be a little slow this morning."

"Oh, okay." He nodded in confusion.

'_**Catering issues? The Christmas party isn't for a few weeks!' **_He thought,_** 'Hmm, interesting.'**_ Ingrid climbed the stairs to the President's office to inform President Graham of his guest.

Meanwhile, Leon took a seat on the nearby sofa, sighing with relief at its comfort.

He was sitting there for about a half an hour, staring into space when he heard a large bout of hysterical giggling down the hallway. But it wasn't the insane, maniac giggle he'd grown to know and hate, instead it was more girlish, quite soothing somehow, very pleasing to his ears. The sound grew closer until the source of it stepped through the door.

His breathing nearly stopped, she was perhaps one of the most beautiful creatures he'd ever seen. Her hair fell down around her shoulders in gold ringlets, her eyes sparkled with laughter and were as green and clear as shards of jade. When she noticed him she stood upright, the light of the room caused her skin to have a glowing radiance, or he thought perhaps it was something else that caused her to have such a luminous radiance. Her eyes turned dark and sultry with desire as she gazed at him. He felt like he was reliving one of his feverish dreams that left him hot and bothered late at night.

'_**That's...Ashley!?'**_ He thought fervently,_** 'No, it couldn't be...'**_ he reasoned, where was her awkwardness, her adolescence?

"Hi Leon." She blushed, giggling as his blue eyes caressed her. He stared, in just one year, the air of an awkward teenager had left her and she had grown into a ravishingly beautiful young woman. Stopping his impolite staring, he quickly stood, wiping his sweaty palms onto his pants.

"Hey Ashley..." He managed to choke out, nervously shoving his hands into his pockets. At his nervousness, it seemed that she immediately grew bolder.

"And where have you been Mr. Kennedy? Out saving the world instead of protecting little old me?" She teased as she gave him her prettiest smile. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end as color rose into his cheeks. "You know, you haven't really changed much since I last saw you," she reached out and brushed his bangs back, he felt deliciously hot and shaky, his knees buckling, "except for the fact that you need a haircut." Those blushing pink lips curved once again into a tantalizingly beautiful smile. She seemed to be thoroughly enjoying his discomfort. A young man not too much older than Ashley strode into the room moments later.

"Oh, I hope I'm not interrupting anything..." He raised an eyebrow in question to Leon, "Would you mind introducing us?" The man asked her. Leon didn't know why, but he suddenly felt extremely annoyed by the man's interruption.

"Oh yes of course, Leon this is Evan Bastion, he is an attorney of criminal law here in Washington," she paused, "and he is also my fiancé." She said, her eyes apologizing to him.

"Your fiance?" Leon asked, a little overwhelmed, a sharp pain hit him in the chest and he wondered if it might be the breaking of his heart. He mentally kicked himself for turning her down a year ago.

"Yes and Evan, **this** is Agent Leon Scott Kennedy." She beamed with pride. "He is one of my father's best agents, he's the one who rescued me in Spain." She boasted, gracing her betrothed with a dazzling smile as she reveled in how jealous he must be. Evan reached out to shake Leon's hand.

"It's a pleasure Mr. Kennedy, Ashley has told me almost all there is to know about you." Leon could only nod, still a bit hurt by Ashley's decision to marry another. But wait a second, why was he at a loss? He never wanted her in the first place! If he'd never wanted her, why did he feel like he was suddenly missing one of his vital organs? After a few moments of awkward silence, Evan finally spoke up,

"So, I hear that you were involved with the incident in Raccoon city, how on earth did you manage to find yourself there?" Leon was instantly snapped back to reality.

"Yeah I was there, I was on my way to work actually, that's when I decided to give up being a cop."

"Yes, well I don't believe what most people seem to think about Umbrella, I believe that what happened was indeed a major tragedy but Umbrella should be given a second chance, don't you think?" Leon stared at the man blankly,

'_**Umbrella should be given a second chance!?' **_He thought in outrage. He and so many others had fought so long and so hard to bring down Umbrella. Many had bled, been scarred emotionally, and had even fallen over dead trying to bring down the multi-billion dollar faculty. Umbrella had destroyed the lives and homes of so many, why would anyone ever think of allowing them to have a second chance!? He shook his head in disgust.

"No, I _don't_ think so. Umbrella doesn't deserve a second chance." He stated, glaring at the man.

"How can you say that? **Any** criminal should be privy to the right to redeem themselves." Evan argued.

"You talk about criminals as individuals, criminals that are willing to improve their moral standards for the greater good, but you don't understand, Umbrella is not like that if they are put back on their pedestal, they won't change, they'll only continue their research in secret, somewhere kept far away from the public eye. They'll continue to desecrate mankind until society collapses once again at their feet." Evan gulped with something akin to fear as he stared into Leon's unforgiving gaze, "You think Umbrella deserves a second chance? Think again, you weren't there, you don't know anything, you couldn't begin to realize the horror Umbrella has wrought, don't you dare say to me that Umbrella deserves a second chance!" The concern in Ashley's gaze as she clung to her naive fiance was enough to cause Leon to back off. He cleared he throat and looked at the floor, apologizing under his breath, he seemed deeply embarrassed. Evan was staring at the floor too, probably just as ashamed for bringing up such a touchy subject, especially to the President's right hand man. Ashley was staring at Leon with remorse in her eyes, sympathy and concern for all that he'd suffered.

After moments of uncomfortable silence, Ingrid appeared in the doorway as if summoned.

"Mr. Kennedy, the President would like to see you now." Deeply relieved because of the interruption, he nodded and walked to the door, never looking back as he crossed the threshold into the President's office.

"Ah, Mr. Kennedy, welcome, come have a seat I need to discuss something with you." President Graham announced with a jolly laugh. He reached for a tin box on the corner of his desk and pulled out two cigars.

"Cigar?" he offered. Leon waved his hand, declining the offer.

"No thank you sir, I've given up smoking."

"Well, good for you." Graham congratulated him as he lit his own cigar. He puffed on it for a few moments before getting down to business.

"Well as you know Kennedy, this Las plagas research just keeps getting more tedious all the time and I've decided to let the rest of my men handle it for now. As you should already know, my youngest daughter is getting married. And to that Evan Bastion fellow, no less."

"Is something wrong with ?" Leon inquired.

"No, no of course not," President Graham said hurriedly, putting his cigar into the ashtray, "Evan is a fine fellow, someone whom every father would approve of to marry his daughter."

"But?" Leon questioned.

"It's just that, his father, Phineas Bastion works in the Senate, he used to be a city mob boss and he's been trying to gain power into the presidency for years. Then all of a sudden, his son meets my daughter at some college party and now he's going to marry her. I'm a little suspicious Kennedy, which brings me to the purpose of why I'm letting you take a little vacation from all of this virus nonsense..."

"Let me guess...you want me to run a background check on this guy right?"

"Yes, and I would appreciate it if you were to participate in Ashley's rehearsal dinner tomorrow night."

What on earth? Now he was to attend some assembly to praise Ashley's marriage to that jackass who knew absolutely nothing about Umbrella? _**'Yeah right...'**_ He thought, he would rather live Raccoon city all over again rather than to endure that kind of torture. He could already see it, they were probably going to be making kissey faces at each other from across the table! He'd probably throw up his dinner in disgust.

"President Graham, I'm going to have to decline..."

"Please, I insist Agent Kennedy, come have dinner with us, Ashley wanted to ask you herself, but I knew you'd refuse." He said as if he knew just the kind of torture Leon wanted to avoid. He put an arm around his most respected agent as they crossed the room to the door. That was when Graham announced his expectations,

"Now, I want you to find a charming, respectable young lady to accompany you to dinner tomorrow night, and I'll see you at 9 o' clock sharp tomorrow morning."

"Yessir." Leon nodded, saluting him as he exited the room.

Later that night, Leon sat on his sofa, watching Comedy Central as he flipped through his address book, trying to decide which girl to take to the rehearsal dinner. Unfortunately, most of the women in his address book were old buddies from college and the police academy and they had told him they were either too busy, not interested, they were unavailable at the time, or they were happily married. He couldn't ask Ingrid...she was already out of the question because of their last date in which he'd ended up getting hammered drunk and referring to her as Ada. According to Ingrid, he had inappropriately pawed her, before stealing a kiss and collapsing on her dining room floor.

He was about to give up hope when he stumbled upon a forgotten number in the very back. The number was Claire Redfield's relocation address. Hopefully, Claire still had the same phone number and wasn't married. He dialed the number. For a little more than five minutes the phone rang and there was no answer. Obviously, she didn't own an answering machine. He was just about to give up and hang up the phone when an exhausted, cool female voice answered,

"Hello?" Leon almost jumped out of his seat he was surprised to even get an answer at all, he answered back,

"Claire!? Is this Claire Redfield?" He sounded almost desperate.

"Well duh! **You **called **me** buddy! Who are you and what do you want!? You're making me miss Days of Our Lives! You better not be selling something!" Clearly, she seemed annoyed by the phone call. Leon laughed,

"Hey, it's me, Leon!" The other line was blank for a whole two seconds.

"L-Leon!? What the-? Is this some kind of prank? Who is this _really_?"

"Claire, it really is me!"

"C'mon, get real! Why would Leon ignore one of his closest friends for seven years then just up and decide to call her!?" She argued, she did have a point.

"Look, I'm sorry about not calling or even checking in every once in a while but I've been really busy the past couple years." He apologized.

"Apology accepted." She chirped on the other line, "I was only playing with you Leon! I'd recognize that sarcastic, melancholy voice anywhere!"

"Uh, thanks I guess..."

"So, I heard you rescued the President's youngest from some terrorists in Spain, is that true?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much true..." He said, deciding not to acknowledge the fact that they were bio-terrorists like Umbrella's followers. He decided that she didn't need to know all the gruesome details.

"So, what made you just up and decide to call me?" She asked eagerly.

"Well you know, I hadn't seen you in a while and I thought, why don't we go on a date? For old times sake!" The other line grew dead silent. What had he been thinking? _**'For old times sake'**_? Was that some kind of joke?_Their_ old times sake was battling bloody, decaying, stinking maggot infested monsters, it wasn't really something you'd want to look back at and reminisce on. But then, Leon knew there was something else keeping Claire from saying yes. Another thought came to Leon's mind, something he'd dreaded ever since the day she'd returned from her wayward trip to Antarctica, Claire's relationship with her friend, Steve Burnside. She had told him about Steve, and how he'd died after confessing his love to her. Leon had always wondered...did she love him back? But Claire was his last hope for a date, there was no way in Hell he was going to allow her to say no.

"Claire, please! Um, they'll have dancing and music and food!" He begged, she laughed at him,

"All right, All right I'll go with you!"

"So, tomorrow night at 8 o'clock meet me at the White House and dress fancy."

"What!? What do you mean White House!? More details please!" She demanded.

"Just show up, I'll make sure to tell you all about it."

"Okay, whatever you say."

............................................................................................................................................................

Grabbing her keys, Claire kept a mental checklist to make sure she didn't forget anything. It was already 7:45 and she was supposed to be halfway to Washington D.C. by now. Technically, according to her Psychiatrist, she wasn't supposed to leave her house until her "mental condition" got better, something that Claire was convinced was far gone. Chris said he had come to check up on her one day, like he did every day and she had slit her right wrist with the butcher knife and was sitting on the floor with a blank stare on her face while she practically bled to death. Well, she had no memory o f this of course, and the doctor told her she could be having blackouts. She had been having recurring dreams about her time at Rockfort Island and about Steve's death. The doctor had diagnosed her with a mental relapse. Her instructions were to stay at home and keep herself occupied because obviously she was a "danger to the public as much as herself". They gave her a special medication which Chris kept track of and made sure she took every day after he came home from work. This isolated treatment was supposed to help cure her, but it seemed that every day she slipped a little more into the dark precipice of insanity. She was done trying to get better, it wasn't like she could ever be cured of her memories, and in fact she didn't want to be. Once again some doctor wanted to make her lose the things that were important to her. Some ex-Umbrella employee wanted to help her get rid of Steve forever in her memories. She had lost them once before; Only a few months after Steve's death and Umbrella's collapse, she had fallen so deeply into depression for the boy she had known for little more than three days, that everyone began to pity her. Chris convinced her to undergo an operation in which some of her past memories would be erased and that included her memories of Steve. Although, her heart knew what was missing soon enough, bringing to light her lost memories of Steve Burnside. She began seeing him in other people on the street and shouted his name, she would ask Chris obscene questions about him, like for example, if he was still alive. Then she would remember something from her past and end up injuring herself in some unspeakable way. Now the memories were haunting her in nightmares. She dare not let her psychiatrist know this.

Claire walked out of the door to her apartment, leaving her isolation ward for the first time in two months. Locking the door behind her, she carefully navigated the apartment steps in her gold stilettos. The dress she'd bought was perfect for dancing. It went down to the ankle on one side, but stopped at the thigh on the other. It was a one-strapped wine-red dress decorated with gold sequins shaped into roses. The dress allowed fast movement and plenty of room for intimate dancing, she blushed a little at the thought, then felt a little guilty when Steve flashed through her mind, his bitter-sweet smile making her eyes water with sadness. She banished the image from her mind, determined not to cry. She knew that if anything was out of sorts, if she had anything wrong with her or showed any signs of tears, Leon would be concerned about her the whole night and her feelings and his concern will have ruined their time together. And anyway, Steve had been dead for seven years and definitely wasn't coming back, why should she let the memory of him ruin her chances with other guys? But it was only the fact that he had loved her that kept her from getting into a relationship. She decided that she had a lot of things to be guilty for in her life. Sure, she'd felt guilty about going on this date because of Steve, but she also felt guilty for turning Leon down all those years ago and for causing Chris to worry about her and make him take care of her like some babysitter. But those weren't the only things she felt guilty for, what she really felt guilty for was giving up that love that she and Leon had once shared for each other and giving it to one who'd died in her arms, one she'd spent years weeping and grieving over, and one she wished would leave her thoughts and stop tormenting her. She had to force him from her mind now or preoccupy them with something else, because it seemed that he was becoming more and more persistent with staying in her thoughts.

She ripped open the door of her flame red Corvette and got inside, slamming the door shut. Ignoring the fact that there could be people around, she slapped herself and slammed her head down on the steering wheel in frustration, yelling,

"GET THE HELL OUT YOU BASTARD!" She sobbed, tears running down her cheeks as she angrily hit the steering wheel, causing the horn to beep. She straightened, mascara running in lines down her face, and looked at herself in the rearview mirror.

"Dammit, now I look like shit." She voiced, dabbing her cheeks with a few napkins she found in the middle compartment. She took a deep breath to calm herself down before she reapplied her makeup. While she was reapplying it, she was seriously reconsidering her date with Leon. She thought for a second that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to go out into public just yet.

'_**No, wait that's ridiculous!'**_ She thought, shaking her head as she jammed the key into the ignition. Before departing, she whispered,

"Steve, I know that you can hear me, but you can't keep doing this to me, I have a life I need to get on with and I can't have Chris babysitting me like some little kid anymore. Please...can't I enjoy a few hours without you?" She nodded as if what she said would be good enough for him to understand. Then she pulled her corvette out onto the highway and it seemed as if Steve really did acknowledge her words, because suddenly her mind was positioned elsewhere.

"Thank-you." She whispered as she turned her attention towards more pressing issues, like arriving at the White House on time.

............................................................................................................................................................

Leon had been stationed at the White House since 9 o'clock that morning. His duties consisted of helping the servants set up the dining room in which the dinner would take place. He thought that the job was more befitting towards a woman but as they were short on help, he wasn't allowed to tell them no. The process of setting up dining tables, center pieces and silverware had soon become rather tedious and he was glad when it was all over. Leon looked down at his watch for the fiftieth time that night, watching anxiously for Claire to pull into the drive. He'd checked in many times with his fellow employees to make sure she hadn't already arrived, but nobody had seen her. Well it was already 8:40 and he had told her to be there at 8 o'clock.

'_**I should have told her eight o' clock sharp.'**_ He thought, jamming his hands into the pockets of his tux and absently kicking at the tiny pieces of gravel on the driveway. Did it really take that long for a woman to get ready? He knew she lived in New York and that it may take a while for her to get there, but come on, she should have known and left earlier. Just then another thought occurred to him, what if he was being stood up? What if Claire had just decided that she didn't want to see him? Then he'd really be screwed. He'd have no date for the rehearsal dinner and he'd be stuck with the President's eldest hanging all over him.

'_**Oh, God please tell me she hasn't changed her mind!'**_ He let out a sigh of relief as he saw the Chevy corvette roll into the driveway. Claire didn't know it, but Leon had seen Chris' birthday gift to Claire a week before it was given to her, a brand new 2003 flame red convertible Chevy corvette. He'd talked to Chris 11 months ago when he visited the police academy in New York. He watched him receive the spot of lieutenant of the N.Y.P.D. It had been quite a shock actually, they had run into each other in the men's restroom and they had both changed so much over that seven year period that they hadn't recognized each other before the ceremony. If he didn't know any better, Claire must have altered quite a bit too. She got out of her car and walked right past him, dressed in some kind of "Dancing With The Stars" get-up, obviously she hadn't recognized him. He decided to play up his usual role of government agent,

"Excuse me ma'am? May I help you?" He called from behind. She turned around, rooting through her small bag for her identification.

"Ah, yes I'm looking for Agent Leon Kennedy, perhaps you know him?" She asked, still having trouble with her bag, she still didn't look up to see who it was.

"I'm sorry ma'am but I don't think I know anyone by that name..." He teased, she lifted her head in shock.

"What do you mean you don't know anyone by that-" She squinted her eyes in recognition, "Leon?" She asked, blinking her eyes a few times. He took his hands out of his pockets and leaned in to give her a friendly hug. She hugged him back, bubbles of girlish excitement building up within her.

'_**OMG, he's so cute!'**_ Her mind gushed. He had gotten very handsome as he'd aged, she decided blushing furiously. She suddenly felt tremendously regretful at having rejected him all those years ago.

Claire hadn't really changed as much as he'd expected; she seemed like the same Claire he'd known seven years ago. In a way, she was kind of a relief from the whole Ashley wedding deal for her personality was the complete opposite of the former. That was when he noticed Claire's extraordinary attire.

"What are you wearing?" He managed to ask her.

"What? You don't like my dancing dress?" She teased, swishing her skirt playfully. She decided to flirt and tease him; after all, he was what every girl dreamed of having for her own. Steve was dead, and he wasn't coming back. There was no way she was going to miss out on Leon's affection for a second time!

"So shall we dance?" She asked, offering her hand. Leon shook his head, chuckling to himself,

'_**Dork.'**_ He thought. He stared down at her hand for a long time before saying,

"Claire, we're not going dancing." Her face dropped,

"What! You dragged me all the way out here in a formal dancing dress, and we're not even going dancing!?" She exclaimed angrily. He rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"I'm sorry, I guess I should explain myself."

"Yeah, and it had better be a good explanation Mr. Kennedy!" He laughed, she was getting all worked up over nothing! He wondered it he should delay the explanation and just surprise her instead.

"Claire I haven't exactly told you everything."

"What does that mean?" She asked testily. Perhaps it was a bad idea to not have informed her sooner.

"Well first of all, after I rescued Ashley from Spain I was sort of off on a confidential assignment for the President." He began as they walked toward the White House.

"What kind of assignment?" She asked with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Like I said Claire, it's confidential." He said wishing to avoid the subject. She sighed,

"Okay..."

"Well anyway, there's a few things I should warn you about before we go inside."

"Like what?" She asked.

"First, the President doesn't have one daughter, he has four."

"Four? Jeez, doesn't he have at least one son?" Leon shook his head.

"Nope! They're all girls, although he does have a nephew that he treats like his only son..."

"One nephew? That's it? Come on he's gotta have more than just one!" She insisted.

"It seems as if he should but he doesn't. They call it the Graham curse, the curse of daughters. There is only a male born once every generation, though nobody really knows why. But there's a few things you should know about his daughters, first there's Marilyn, the oldest, she can be a little overbearing and she throws a fit if nothing goes the way she wants it to." Leon sighed, Marilyn was perhaps the most troubling of the four Graham daughters, he had mentioned the gist of her problems, not counting her flirtatious attitude that seemed to get him in trouble every time he turned around.

"Daddy's little girl?" Claire guessed.

"Sure is, President Graham doesn't know how to tell her no. Then there's Jessica, the well-mannered child, she uses her position as the President's daughter to put together charities for individuals who are less fortunate than herself. Thirdly, there's Brittany, the rebellious one, she never listens to anything except her unruly friends and the crude songs on her Ipod." Brittany was the troublemaker, the one who snuck out at night to hang out with her college buddies. She had absolutely no morals and respected no one, she made her father look like a bad parent and was the only one of his daughters, besides Ashley, who could make his temper fly off the handle.

"And finally, there's Ashley..." He paused, what was there to say about Ashley? Sure, in his dreams he had a million things he wanted to say about her, but when he was awake, all those words had just been scattered to the winds, which didn't really matter anyway, he would have been too tongue-tied to say them. But could he really tell Claire about his absurd obsession over Ashley Graham?

"Let me guess...you're in love with her right?" Claire snickered, knowing that there was no way it could be true. Leon developed a nervous look on his face as if he'd done something shameful, his face turned red and he moved his head to the side to keep the truth from her.

How could she have guessed? Was it that obvious?

And how did he know it wasn't just infatuation?

He looked back to notice she was staring at him with a look of realization in her eyes.

"Oh my god...you _are_ in love with her aren't you?" He was speechless, she smiled, a bittersweet smile, "Leon, you're blushing." He scratched the back of his neck nervously, trying to come up with an excuse for the way he was acting,

"Look, I think it might just be infatuation, I mean, I only started feeling this way yesterday."

Claire didn't buy it,

"Infatuation...right."

"I don't know, but it doesn't matter how I feel anyway, she's...she's marrying someone else."

The blush faded from his cheeks, his pretty blue eyes becoming remorseful because of his bad luck with women.

"That's exactly the reason why you're here, I needed a date for her rehearsal dinner." Claire shook her head,

"Leon! What are you doing!?" She exclaimed in outrage, "If you love her then why don't you tell her!? You should object! You shouldn't be treated like this! It's not like you're some grimy peasant boy! You deserve to be happy too!" She declared, she couldn't understand why the girl wouldn't want someone like Leon around, he was probably one of her best friends and one of the nicest guys she'd ever met. But then again, Claire wasn't around when Leon had rejected Ashley's advances either. "You should rescue her, stop the wedding, sweep her off her feet! Carry her off in style, you know the whole knight in shining armor bit!" He shook his head, apparently he'd already thought this over,

"I forgot to tell you, she's marrying a lawyer." Claire lowered the fist she'd raised in the air during her insurgent speech and frowned,

"Ooh, that could be a problem." Everyone knew that successful lawyers were very wealthy and that their salaries would beat that of a U.S. government agent's any day. He sighed with regret,

"I don't have a chance in the world." Claire rolled her eyes, Leon was feeling sorry for himself again...

"Aw Leon, you have to think of the glass as half full _sometimes_ jeez, you're starting to make _me_ feel depressed." He laughed, Claire was right, no wonder no one wanted to be with him, he was so damn negative all the time. He shook his head,

"Why don't we go inside before President Graham sends a search party out to look for me?"

As usual, before entering the White House, the two had to be searched at the door. Leon stood rigid with an annoyed look on his face as they patted him down and searched him with metal detectors. Claire felt a little antsy underneath the close scrutiny of the metal detectors and practically jumped out of her skin when they beeped with alarm. Ever since Rockfort Island, she had been quite adverse to metal detectors.

"Ma'am we're going to have to search your bag."

"Uh, um okay-" She stuttered, barely having the chance to speak before her bag was ripped out of her hands and the contents of it were spilled over the table. The agents found nothing but personal items and allowed the two of them to go on into the foyer.

Claire sighed with relief and wiped off the beads of sweat that had formed at the top of her forehead.

'_**Phew!'**_ She thought, it was a good thing she kept her pistol in a separate pocket. She always carried a pistol or some type of weapon with her wherever she went, you never knew when something like Raccoon City would happen again. This was probably the reason why Chris didn't like to fly with her, she acted too much like a criminal when metal detectors were involved. Leon noticed the worried look on her face and put an arm around her.

"Don't worry, that's the only time they do that whole metal detection shit." She laughed,

"I have a feeling you don't like it very much."

"Well it gets on your nerves if you're assigned to protect the President."

When they reached the foyer, Claire was silenced in awe by the historical beauty of it all. She could literally feel the history and the memories of old resonating throughout the halls. The realization of it made her eyes tear up. But she was snapped from her reverie when seconds later, shouting was heard throughout the hall,

"Dammit! Where the hell is that woman! She has my schedule!" President Graham hollered when he spotted Leon, "Leon! Have you seen Ingrid!?"

"Not since this morning sir, but I'm sure she's on her way!" Leon answered fully alert, his muscles tensing in alarm. He wasn't used to being yelled at because Ingrid was always there to keep everything in line. President Graham's temper cooled as he spotted the young beauty clinging to Leon's arm. He cleared his throat,

"Oh, I apologize miss, please forgive me for being so rude, I usually don't shout at the men who are hired to protect me and my family, I'm just a little angry with my secretary at the moment. I am Robert Theodore Graham, President of the United States of America and who might you be my dear?" He asked, shaking her hand.

Claire was rather intimidated by her nation's President and was shaking as he took her hand. She stuck to Leon's arm like glue, there was no way he was going to leave her alone with someone she barely knew.

"Um I'm Claire...C-Claire Redfield sir!" She stuttered nervously.

"Redfield? I knew you seemed familiar somehow...are you related to a Christopher Redfield by any chance?"

"Oh yes! He's my brother!" She shouted gleefully. He nodded,

"I was there to give him the position of lieutenant after he was shot saving the life of a hostage. He is a great man and I greatly anticipate the day when he'll join the CIA, right Leon?"

"That's right sir." Leon answered.

"Miss Redfield, you tell that brother of yours that he is always welcome here."

"Yes sir, I will." She answered. She was suddenly saddened for Chris, he would never get to join the CIA or do anything big like that, not if he was always taking care of her and her stupid mental incapacities. Her thoughts were interrupted when a vision in an ivory halter dress peered out from behind an open door.

The woman had short wavy golden hair cut up to her ears, exposing an ivory throat that was adorned with a necklace of pearls and diamonds. The woman wore matching pearl studs in her ears and had a 30's or 40's look about her with her "bedroom eyes" and glossy apple-red lipstick. She had high cheekbones and a wise yet malicious look about her that Claire didn't trust. Nevertheless, she was quite beautiful and Claire wondered if this might be Ashley.

'_**Leon does have a thing for 'bedroom eyes'.**_ Claire thought, remembering Leon's brooding obsession over Ada Wong. But this woman didn't look like an Ashley at all, nothing close to it. President Graham noticed that her attention had been averted to something else and turned around to notice his eldest daughter staring at them from behind an open door.

"Marilyn!" She cringed as she shut the door and answered,

"Yes daddy?"

"Would you mind coming over here and saying hello to our guest instead of just staring at her rudely like some hooligan!" She giggled nervously,

"Well of course daddy!" She walked across the room to stand next to her father, spotting Leon in the process.

"Hello Leon." She purred, her catlike eyes devouring him with their hungry stare.

"Marilyn." He nodded. Marilyn narrowed her eyes when she saw the lovely young woman standing next to him, her eyes full of animosity as she shook hands with the girl.

"Hello, Marilyn Graham, and you must be..." She paused mid-sentence as she shook Claire's hand,

"Claire, Claire Redfield." Claire answered, not the least bit intimidated by the proud, spoiled little daddy's girl.

"Oh yes that's right, Leon mentioned you once when we were dating, but he hasn't talked too much about you since then." She remarked, maliciously revealing her jealousy as she looked the young beauty up and down like she was a cockroach that needed to be squashed. She was jealous of the girl's advantage because of her young age, her body that matched that of a dancer's, slim with long graceful legs. The girl had bright sapphire eyes like that of her sister's which made her envy grow and long auburn red hair that reached her elbows, a length that she could never grow her own hair to. Her own eyes were a sparkling, icy gray, like her father's and her hair was much too brittle for her to be able to grow it so long without it getting split ends. Claire could tell by Marilyn's icy stare that they weren't going to be getting along anytime soon. Claire had felt the barb in Marilyn's comment for only a few seconds before telling herself that Leon had been busy doing his job, that was why she wasn't given a second thought, not because of some hussy like Marilyn Graham.

"Daddy, I'm going to go wait in the limo." She said suddenly, "See ya Leon," She winked, "Miss Redfield." She said, refusing to address the girl's first name. Robert shook his head,

'_**Why did I have to have such a difficult daughter?'**_ Moments later, another young woman was descending the stairs with ipod buds hooked into her ears. The music was blasting and could be heard clearly throughout the room as if it were being broadcasted. Long, shiny platinum blonde hair trailed over her shoulder, obviously extensions. She looked about Claire's age with sparkling blue eyes and a fit body. She was wearing street clothes, a midriff shirt with a jean jacket and mini-skirt. From what Leon had told her, this was not Ashley, this had to be Brittany.

"Brittany!? What the hell are you wearing!?" Robert yelled, Brittany didn't seem to notice he was yelling at her, she kept fiddling with her ipod. She descended the stairs, totally unaware that anyone was yelling at her until she bumped into her father's chest at the bottom. She looked up annoyed, into an enraged pair of gunmetal eyes and a face that was bright red with rage. Only then did she take off her headphones,

"What?" She asked rudely in annoyance.

"You get back up there and change your goddamn clothes young lady!!!" He shouted angrily, spewing spit in his anger. Brittany stepped back in shock. Leon and Claire were cringing, they obviously were not used to all of this yelling. Leon raked a hand through his hair, once again rebellious Brittany was acting out.

'_**This wouldn't have happened if Ingrid was here to keep everyone in line!'**_ He thought. The President usually wasn't this grumpy, especially in front of guests. But that was because Ingrid was usually around to tell him his schedule, what he was supposed to be doing, which medications to take and she even helped his daughters get ready and she got them out of trouble by hiding their disappointments so that President Graham was never too upset or distracted by anything. The question was, where was Ingrid when you needed her?

"I don't understand why I have to change clothes! It's not like I really want to go to this stupid rehearsal dinner anyway!" Her father ripped the blue ipod from her hands, taking the headphones as he did so,

"Brittany Mariah Graham, you do as I say and find something appropriate to wear or I'll have Leon take your damn ipod and smash it underneath the Hummer's tires!" Brittany looked over to Leon and realized that he really would smash her ipod if given the order. Her eyes widened fearfully as she darted up the stairs wailing,

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'll go change ASAP!" Another young lady, about a little younger than Leon was almost run down at Brittany's attempt to get back into her room. She sighed and rolled her eyes, that girl just didn't learn. Claire assumed that this wasn't Ashley either, she seemed too wise and ethereal for Leon's taste. The woman had long wavy golden blonde hair that streamed down over her shoulders in glorious waves. She had kind, caring brown eyes framed with long thick eyelashes and a full-lipped mouth that curved into a kindly smile. She was wearing a strapless white ball-gown decorated with crystals. She looked like the true image of what an American princess should look like and she seemed as if she was truly the opposite of her older sister, Marilyn. President Graham smiled proudly as she descended the steps, for he was overjoyed to present her as his daughter.

"Father, forgive my sister's foolishness, I'm afraid all of that shameless music has gone to her head." He claimed her hand as she reached the floor, and presented her to Claire,

"This...is my daughter, Jessica, Jessica this is Claire Redfield, an acquaintance of Leon's and the sister of New York city's new lieutenant, Chris Redfield." She extended her hand and Claire shook it,

"It is a pleasure to finally meet you, I've heard many stories of your brother's bravery and Leon has told me many times about yours as well." The smile on Jessica's face was so cheerful, Claire couldn't help but smile back. "I sincerely apologize for my sisters' rudeness, they can be a little oblivious to people's feelings."

"It's all right, I took no offense by it." Claire replied. A look of relief washed over Leon and Jessica's faces.

"Well good, I didn't want you to hate us before you got a chance to meet Ashley." Just as Jessica mentioned her name, Ashley appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Yes? What were you saying about me?" Leon looked up to notice the gorgeous young woman who stood at the top of the stairs. Her glorious champagne-blonde ringlets were captured at the top of her head with two golden headbands. Her gown was Greek, styled like that of a toga, leaving one of her shoulders bare. The other shoulder was adorned with an expensive looking brooch the size of her hand, carved from a large diamond. She looked like one of the goddesses he conjured up in his dreams late at night and he stared at her, helpless with lust.

"Oh, Ashley are you ready to leave yet?" President Graham asked. Ashley's face lit up when she smiled and Leon thought that he must look pathetic, for his knees went weak with buckling every time she smiled like that.

Ashley had a girlish, innocent beauty to her and Claire could understand just how much Leon liked her. She was very different and quite the opposite of Ada Wong, judging by Leon's stories and it was a large relief for Claire. It all reminded her of an innocent 50's teenage romance, the good little girl and the straight-A football jock. Ashley was about to descend the stairs when she did something very out of character for a President's daughter. She hopped up on the stair railing and slid down the balustrade, narrowly missing a plant pot and crashing into Leon. Claire had hurriedly moved out of the way to prevent the two from creating a dog pile on top of her.

Apparently, Leon had been too busy staring to realize he had to move. She flew into his arms, knocking them both to the ground, and apparently this was her intent for she seemed quite happy with the results.

'_**Why does this kind of thing always happen to me?'**_ Leon thought, he just did not have any luck when it came to the ladies. He heard Claire snickering behind him, laughing at his predicament. Ashley was sitting on his waist, giggling,

"Sorry Leon." She whispered, but he knew that she was far from sorry. _**'So, it's payback then?'**_ He thought, remembering when he refused her offer of overtime.

"Ashley! How many times have I told you how dangerous that is?" President Graham bellowed, his voice echoing throughout the halls. She giggled again and smiled prettily, looking down into Leon's eyes as she caressed the forelock away from his cerulean-blue gaze. It was almost too much for poor Leon, that it made his ears and face turn bright red with embarrassment.

"But daddy, I wasn't in any danger, Leon was here to catch me!" The three women laughed while Leon was too starstruck to move and President Graham shook his head thinking,

'_**I'm too old to have to worry about my daughter like this!'**_

Moments later, Ashley's fiancé Evan strode in, wondering what all the commotion was about. He got this horrified, angry look on his face when he saw his fiancé sitting on the waist of her father's favorite bodyguard. He pulled her up angrily by her wrist, glaring back at Leon as he did so.

"Evan, what's with you!?" She asked, practically ripping herself away from his possessive grasp.

"I think you know." He accused.

"Oh! Nothing happened! I fell off of the railing alright?" she declared in outrage, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She hugged herself as if to shelter herself from his embrace and glared at him.

"Yes, well perhaps it would be best if you go and wait in the limo with your sister." He said, ushering her out of the door. Evan walked up the stairs toward Ashley's room to gather her coat and purse, never saying a word to anyone.

Since Evan hadn't bothered to do it, Claire helped Leon off of the floor.

"Jeeze, control freak, don't tell me _that_ was her fiancee?" Claire asked in disbelief. Leon nodded dejectedly. Claire sighed and shook her head, this girl was in deep and she either didn't care or was trying to reach out to Leon for help.

"What is wrong with that girl!" Claire whispered to him, "You are so much better looking and you are so _not_ a control freak!"

"Claire," Leon scolded, "Obviously there's something about Evan that Ashley likes and as her friends or in your case, acquaintances, we have to respect her decisions, no matter how frustrating."

Claire sighed angrily,

"Leon, you know just the things to say to keep you from the things you want most." He sighed too, dragging a hand through his honey-brunette locks in frustration,

"Look, let's just go wait in the limo okay?" He suggested, she gasped.

"We're riding in a limo?"

"Uh, yeah didn't you hear everyone's conversation for the last two hours!?"

"Of course I did! I just missed the part where _we_ were riding in the limo!"

"Well maybe you should readjust your hearing aid!"

"I don't have a hearing aid!"

"Well get one!" The two of them looked at each other with serious expressions on their faces until they burst out into laughter, strolling out of the door towards the limo.

"So? Are you going to dance with me when we get there or sit at the table and stare at Ashley?" Claire asked teasingly.

"I guess I _could_ dance, for a little while." Leon answered, wrapping an arm around Claire's shoulders.

"Yes!" She exclaimed, pumping her arms in an excited gesture. It was when everyone was preparing to leave that President Graham muttered,

"It's going to be a long night."

* * *

I've realized something, this chapter is majorly long, I have no idea who could have read this in one sitting! But if you did read it all in one sitting, I applaud you!!! I have gotten so many great reviews for this chapter, but I'm disappointed that no one has been reviewing my later chapters =(. C'mon guys, R&R it will do your heart good if you do! ;D


	3. The Devil's Offer

Hello readers, I meant to tell you what exactly this story is about, well it is really a crossover story. You may have been quite confused by the introduction... well it is really called the Prophecy of The Twelve Maidens and it is a giant crossover fanfic combining the worlds of Resident Evil, Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy IX, X and XII, Kingdom Hearts, Devil May Cry, and Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. How will all of these opposing genres work together? Well, somehow I'm going to have it make sense in the greater scheme of things! In case you're wondering, I won't return to Resident Evil for some time, but when I do I plan to spend quite a while on It! So without further adieu, I give you Chapter 2!

(_**Ha, I was a poet and I didn't know it!)**_

_**Disclaimer: If I owned any of them, I would make Dante from Devil May Cry dress in drag and have tea parties with the Disney Princesses! (Just kidding! But the things I would do to him would be equally embarrassing, Vergil would praise me!)**_

Chapter 2

The Devil's Offer

"_**Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."**_

"_**Steve!" Claire screamed as his body twisted and bulged to deform his once human physique into something that Claire had only seen in Raccoon City. The once beautiful jade-green eyes turned smoky-red with hatred and bloodlust as the creature that was once her dear friend removed the battle-axe from the wall. Claire ran, ducking as the monster tried to behead her several times. She ran until she was finally safe behind the barred door that was originally meant to prevent her escape. She backed up against the wall in terror, unable to do anything but watch the creature hack at those bars with the enormous battle-axe as it lusted for the end of her.**_

_**A tentacle burst through the cement wall and constricted her in it's slimy embrace as it held her ready for the monster. The monster that was Steve had finally succeeded in transcending the bars. As it raised its axe for the final blow that would cause her inevitable death, Claire shut her tear-filled eyes, unable to watch the ending of her own existence. Just as the blade was about to cut through the delicate ivory skin of her throat, the creature remembered the promise he'd made to her, '**__I promise I'll protect you next time Claire...__**' **_

"_**Claire..." It groaned, turning its rage on the tentacle that held her, splitting it in two with the barbaric weapon. Spewing green goo, the tentacle smacked Steve into the wall, stunning him as he felt his ribs break against the cold cement. As he melted back to his natural form, he looked up to notice Claire Redfield, the girl of his dreams and the love of his life, had tears in her pretty sapphire-blue eyes. Even though he had nearly killed her, she was right by his side, crying for him. He grasped her hand in his as his life was slowly coming to an end.**_

"_**You're...warm." He managed, barely able to breathe, let alone speak what might be his very last words.**_

"_**Steve, you've got to hang in there, my brother's come to save us, we're getting out of here." She pleaded; he couldn't die, not now, not when they were so close to leaving this terror behind.**_

"_**Your...brother kept his promise...I'm sorry I cannot." He apologized, holding her hand up to his beautiful dying face.**_

"_**What are you saying?" She cried.**_

"_**I'm glad that I met you...I love you...Claire..." Those were the last words he was able to say before his eyes closed and his heart gave up the struggle.**_

_**A SHIVER AWOKE STEVE FROM HIS DEEP SLEEP.**_

The area in which he was kept was below freezing, his view blocked by a frosty glass portal. He was surrounded by icicles of different shapes and sizes, some of them poking him in uncomfortable places. He was clad in nothing but a pair of black waterproof pants and wires stuck out of him from various places. He was drowsy and his vision was slightly blurry, probably an effect of some of the needles in his arms, some of which were pumping various drugs into his bloodstream. Strangely, his senses seemed more developed, for he could practically smell the chemicals pumping through the tube and could hear the sound of blood rushing through every vain in his body. The chemicals smelled familiar somehow, like he'd come across them before. The liquid was blue and it looked quite menacing to his mind's eye. Another liquid was also there, it was a bright lime-green, its scent was sweeter, and the effects of it made him feel peaceful, made him want to succumb to the security of sleep. Yet there was something he didn't trust about it.

His head hurt like somebody had pounded his head into the ground with a rock and he faintly wondered where he was, his body too numb to move. His last thoughts were coming back to him, slowly but surely. The last thing he remembered was having his ribs broken, but strangely he felt no pain at all, the way his ribs had cracked against that cement wall, his pain should have been unbearable. But no, all he felt was cold, almost like a nothingness had planted itself inside him ever since he'd turned into a monster.

Wait a second...he was dead, wasn't he? Well, if he was dead, was this Heaven or Hell? Or had he been reincarnated like in the old Egyptian myths? If this was Hell, where was the devil? The people suffering from unspeakable torture? Why was he numb to his own pain? The glass portal slid open in front of him to reveal a control room of some sort with frosted capsules littered throughout the room. The light of the room burned his sensitive eyes. When he was finally able to focus, he saw men in white labcoats and a tall blonde man wearing dark sunglasses. The man reminded Steve of a soldier, the way he was dressed and how muscular his body was. The man intimidated him, just a bit. The men in white lab coats jotted down notes on their clipboards, some of them adjusting their dorky large-framed glasses so that they may observe him better.

'_**What is this?'**_ he thought, why was he on display like some labrat?

He looked back to the man in sunglasses, trying to put a name to him, he seemed familiar somehow. _**'Alfred?'**_ was the first thought that came to mind, _**'But no, it couldn't be,'**_ he was definitely too muscular to have been Alfred, and besides Alfred was dead, but wait he was too wasn't he!? He vaguely wondered if this could be the devil. Well, if he could fathom what Hell would look like for him, this would surely be it, an Umbrella lab.

"After all this time, you're finally awake." the man spoke, his voice held a deep British accent, unlike Alfred's high-pitched, girly one. "You've been asleep for seven years, after all." the man explained. Steve's brain was doing somersaults. '_**Seven years!? I've been 'asleep' for seven years!?' **_Claire must've forgotten all about him by now, moved on with her life...married Leon. Jealousy washed over him with a wave of sickly dread and he felt nauseated all of a sudden. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of the horrible thoughts before it made him hurl. He wanted answers, why the f*** was he back in an Umbrella facility!?

"Tell me, who are you and what makes you think you have the right to bring me back!?" He demanded, he was more than a little annoyed, maybe even a tad-bit pissed off. He had been ready to go to Heaven, be with his parents, live out his days in paradise. But no, some asshole brought him back from the dead to live out his days in a torturous Umbrella lab. He had been in some coma for seven years and he didn't remember it. All he had were bits and pieces of the different dreams he'd had, all about Claire of course. The last dream he'd had was strangely unsettling however, and it was that which had woken him up. Claire had been crying and she spoke to him as if he were dead in the ground somewhere,

"_**Can't I enjoy a few hours without you?"**_ She had said. It was disturbing, and he never wanted to conjure the dream up again.

The man came forward, nodding and coming into the light to introduce himself.

"You do realize that you may no longer be a part of the lives of the people you left behind years ago. My name is Albert Wesker and I've decided that we can help each other Steve." He told him, removing his sunglasses to reveal a pair of crimson-gold catlike creature eyes. Steve shrank away from him in horror, despite being trapped in the small space of the capsule.

"What are you!?" He asked, terrified as he braced himself for the worst. And here he thought that he was going to be rid of Umbrella creatures!

"I am like you." Wesker answered simply, Steve shook his head, a disgusted look taking over his facial features. He didn't want to believe it, he didn't' want to believe he was a monster, he didn't want to believe he'd almost destroyed Claire's beautiful life...

"No way, we are not anything alike!" He declared, Wesker chuckled, pulling a tiny travel mirror out of his pocket and handing it to Steve. Steve held up the mirror, shaking violently as the looking glass slowly reached his face. One glance at his inhuman features and he dropped the mirror, shattering it into a hundred tiny pieces. He cursed under his breath, lifting his hands to look for any other abnormalities that might be present on his body. The "abnormalities" he found would qualify him to be on the cover of a Sports Illustrated magazine. He had the body of a super-human, washboard abdominals, muscular arms, if only Claire could see him now, he thought, she'd probably swoon. His body may have been that of masculine beauty, but his eyes were that of a monster's as far as he was concerned. Not to mention the sharpened canine teeth in his mouth. What was he? A vampire? He shook his head.

'_**This is really retarded,' **_he thought,_** 'my body can't decide what kind of f***ed up creature it wants to be!'**_

"See? It's just as I said, we _are_ alike." Steve shook his head, he was still in deep denial.

"No, you haven't suffered like I have, there's no way you could have possibly known my pain!" He shouted, ripping out the wires connected to him in a fit of rage. An alarm sounded and metal restraints clapped down over the boy's chest, restricting his movements.

Tears sprang forth from his eyes, he tried to stop himself from crying, but it didn't work. He felt stupid, bawling like a big baby in front of all of those people. He jerked his body angrily as the audience of chemists and biologists gasped, most of them fearing what he might do to them. He realized that he could probably have torn every one of them to bloody pieces, without flinching or even over exhorting himself.

Wesker just stood there, staring at him, not a hint or trace of fear was evident on his face; it was emotionless except for the evil grin that crept across his lips, taunting him. Steve lunged at him, wrapping his hands around his throat, that was when Wesker snapped, knocking the boy to the ground and holding him there with a foot to his chest.

"Don't go wasting your energy on me boy, I know you hate Umbrella. You hate them for what they did to your family and what they eventually made you do, what they eventually almost made you lose." Steve let out an animalistic growl, trying to pry Wesker's foot off of him.

"How do you know about Claire!?" He demanded, how did he know? No one would have ever known the pain of something that devastating without having lived through it themselves. Wesker chuckled, the look he gave Steve made him think of the evil villains in the movies.

"Who are you?" He asked again.

"I am a man of many secrets...and you're rescuer, I might add. I found you nearly dead, your insides bleeding, your rib cage nearly shattered. I took you aboard my emergency medical chopper and took you here to this facility. Your body had suffered tremendously and we performed an operation to seal up the puncture wounds in your stomach and lungs and to piece your rib cage back together. Your ribs were broken in so many places that it was as difficult as putting together a jigsaw puzzle. However you had passed on by this time for no ordinary human, or even an infected one, could have survived after all of their insides had bled out. So we used the T-Virus, combined with the Anti-Virus to bring you back to a conscious state."

"You f***ing bastard!" Steve yelled, shoving Wesker's foot off of him before lunging at Wesker again. He stopped the boy with a hand around his throat, effectively restraining him, but not enough to cut off his airway.

Steve clawed at the gloved hand around his throat, but it wouldn't let up, it only tightened its hold. Wesker laughed at his pathetic attempts to get free,

"Yes! A work of art you have become my new pupil! You will make a fine specimen for my plans Steve."

"What plans?" Steve rasped.

"Steve, I too have been mortally wounded by Umbrella," he neatly lied, "it's why I've kept you alive, I need your help to destroy Umbrella for good." Steve looked at him, not sure if he should trust this man with his malicious golden gaze. Wesker let go of Steve's throat and reached into his pocket. Steve had given up the struggle , it was pointless, the man was far stronger than he could ever hope to be. Steve could already feel bruises forming from Wesker's strangle hold, who knew what else the man was capable of.

Wesker pulled out a photograph and handed it to Steve. He took it from him and stared at the man in the photo. The photo was of a man with dark hair, in a clean cut suit. He leaned on a crutch because of the cast that encased his leg, the man was receiving an award for his good deeds it seemed, for he was shaking hands with an important looking man while a metal was being slipped over his head. The one thing that stood out to Steve were the man's strikingly beautiful sapphire eyes that seemed to hold amazing bouts of determination within their depths. Something about the man's eyes were hauntingly familiar, the sight of them made his heart ache. He narrowed his eyes, trying to remember where he'd seen them before.

"Who is this?" He muttered irritably. Wesker grinned, Steve was falling beautifully into his trap. How could he **not** know who Chris Redfield was after sticking around with his sister for so long?

"He is your first assignment." Wesker said simply.

"Assignment? What do you mean 'assignment'?" Steve asked, secretly dreading Wesker's answer.

"Yes, assignment. The man is in our way, killing him would be one step towards destroying Umbrella."

'_**Death.'**_ Steve thought, _**'Wesker wants me to be the angel of mercy himself!'**_ He thought about this for a moment, he didn't know if he'd really be capable of _murdering_ someone, especially one who looked as innocent and harmless as this guy. But on the other hand, it was revenge, a chance to get back at Umbrella for what they'd done to him. How could he refuse? He nodded, accepting the assignment,

"I'll do it, when do I start?" Wesker put an arm around Steve's shoulders as they walked out of the labs together, a large grin on his face like a cat who'd just caught a mouse. Little did Steve know, Umbrella had died shortly after he had.

..........................................................................................................................................................

A wonderful crescendo of ballroom music greeted the President and his family as they reached the restaurant in which the dinner was taking place. Claire looked around in astonishment, there were thousands of guests in the building, all dressed in their finest. Some of the gowns she saw must have cost a fortune while her own dress came from Ross at a discount price of thirty dollars. She felt quite out of place, especially when the orchestra started playing its usual score of Beethoven and Mozart. Claire realized that the only type of dancing they were going to be doing was the waltz, the foxtrot, or the tango. Claire cast Leon a furtive glance full of pure malice. It was his fault that she wasn't going to be dancing to techno! She wanted to go to a Rave club, but no, instead of dancing and drinking 'till she dropped, she would be waltzing and sipping tea with the richest snobs on the east coast. She didn't even know how to waltz! Leon was going to get an earful out of her, that was for sure!

Of course, Leon hadn't noticed Claire's malicious stare, he was too busy worrying about where Ashley had gone, he'd wanted to have a conversation with her, preferably on the dance floor after he'd had a few drinks. Liquor always calmed him down and made it easier to deal with his problems and talk to women.

"Damn it all! Calm down Leon! The girl goes to the bathroom for five minutes and you're running around like a child on too much sugar!" President Graham yelled, his throat going hoarse from all the shouting he'd been doing lately. Ingrid still hadn't shown up, which was very aggravating news to President Graham. She had left a message saying she'd be late, but this was ridiculous!

"I'm sorry Mr. President, I guess I got a little carried away..." Leon apologized, taking a seat at the table, his face growing pomegranate-red with embarrassment.

"Ya think?" Evan interjected, brushing his hair back from his face. Claire arched one eyebrow, turning her glare on Evan, who dismissed it with a snobbish upturn of his nose. Leon turned around and was glaring at him as well because of the rude statement, feeling a little jealousy towards the man.

As tension began to build between the three of them, Ashley appeared.

"I'm back!" She announced cheerfully, taking her place at the table between Evan and Claire. Claire had decided to sit between Leon and Ashley to draw Evan's attention away from Leon. However, Claire was beginning to regret the action because Leon was trying to literally lean in to what Evan was saying, becoming seemingly oblivious to the fact that Claire was even there and was leaning over her chair and invading her personal space.

Evan was talking about some kind of criminal law case, something that was completely boring and not at all interesting to Claire, but apparently Leon was hanging on every word the man spoke, usually voicing an objection and causing an argument between the two of them. Ashley and Claire were sitting in the center of their arguments, harmlessly trying to enjoy their meals.

"So, you are a friend of Leon's, he used to tell me about you all the time." Ashley said to Claire,

"He says that you were with him during the Raccoon City incident." Claire nodded and Ashley asked no more about it, knowing that she herself would not want to talk about her trip to Spain.

"I heard that he rescued you, all by himself." Claire mentioned, Ashley nodded proudly, sighing in admiration,

"He is a good man, I will miss him when I'm gone." Ashley said, delicately sipping her champagne. Claire thought that it was strange that Ashley was acting like she was being forced to marry, for she was shamelessly ignoring her fiancé and had interrupted his and Leon's conversation several times to engage in a conversation with Leon to ask how he was doing, how his job was going and had even inquired about what he was doing over the holidays. Evan looked like he was trying to keep himself from yelling his head off at Ashley because of her behavior. Suddenly Ashley and Leon just got up and left for the dance floor! Evan and Claire stared at their dates with their mouths hanging open. Claire was a little ticked, Leon had promised **her** a dance! Evan grumbled angrily and turned around to finish his meal.

"Want to dance?" Claire offered. Evan's bitterness got the best of him,

"Not with you." He muttered.

"Jeeze, sorry I asked." Claire grumbled, sitting back down. She decided to finish her dinner, let Leon have a little alone time with his lady love, she would claim her dance later.

As the dancers took their places on the dance floor, Ashley nervously looked back at her fiancé, noticing with relief that he had turned around and resumed eating, as did Claire. She could tell he was angry by the way his shoulders were hunched over. Her father gave her a thumbs up as he chatted away on his cellular telephone, probably demanding to know what was taking Ingrid so long to get there, Jessica smiled and waved, Brittany was seated at the end of the table, banging her head to some song on her ipod, and Marilyn was glaring at her with the most bitter look she had ever seen. Ashley smiled triumphantly at the latter, finally she was to be the envy of her evil sister!

Leon however, didn't even glance back at the table, his eyes were focused on the object of his desire. She was right there, in his arms, and all he could do was think about how beautiful she was, how hot the room was. He put his hand on the small of her back, clasping her hand in his other, her body moved in closer as the dance required so that they were nearly touching.

As the dance was to begin, she looked up into his eyes, no longer the confident flirt she'd been the other day. She smiled at him weakly, a pink blush staining her cheeks. The way he was looking at her scared her. He had this dark sultry look in his eyes that heated her skin and made her heart flutter. _**'Evan could never do that.'**_ She thought, just one glimpse of Leon's desire for her and she was back under his spell, back in the trap in which he'd snared her a year ago and then heartlessly cast her away from. _**'Why is it that the man who totally despises me can cause fire to run through my blood, yet the one who worships the ground I walk on can do nothing to please me?' **_She thought, suddenly irritated by the way he was looking at her.

When he heard they'd be doing the tango, Leon's heart raced with excitement, almost equal as to when he fought Salazar's right hand. Yet part of him warned that he would be earning a bit of verbal abuse from Ashley's fiancé for the scandalous event. Despite his conscience's warning, he didn't really give a damn, Evan could grumble and bicker all he wanted, there was no way he'd be giving up_ this _dance. A few moments later and the dance ensued, the two of them performing the move smoothly and quite without fault. Ashley decided that the uncomfortable silence between them was bothering her, so she just had to ask,

"I thought that you hadn't seen Claire for seven years, how did you manage to get a hold of her?"

"Well, I sort of found her number by accident, I found it next to her brother's in the back of my phone book."

"Wow, so you guys haven't really talked at all until tonight have you?" Leon shook his head, performing the dance moves with relative ease. " Then why don't you dance with her?"

She asked, genuinely curious.

"Well you know, I hadn't seen you for a while and I thought that we should have a conversation without your fiancé breathing down your neck."

"What should we talk about?" She asked, her eyes narrowing in the most seductive of ways as he grabbed a hold of her thigh as the dance required.

"Why are you marrying him?" He asked, hurt clouding his eyes, "What made you decide this all of a sudden?" Her eyes widened in a mix of pure disbelief and disgust at his question,

"What makes you think you have the right to ask me that?" She sputtered angrily, trying to gracefully slip away from his embrace, but to no avail, he held her in a tight but gentle grip and continued to dance with her. She avoided his eyes, her eyebrows coming together into a frown and Leon wished he hadn't even opened his mouth. She was right after all, who was he to question her like that after he had rudely turned down her offer last year? By the time the dance ended she still hadn't answered him, giving him the cold shoulder as she took her seat back at the table next to Evan. Leon returned to his own seat, Claire noticed the brooding resentful look on his features and realized that something had happened between the two of them out there on the dance floor, something Leon probably didn't want to talk about.

It took only a few moments of the uncomfortable, brooding silence until Claire finally decided that she had had enough of this unbearable tension. She excused herself and literally ran to the restroom.

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Marilyn looked up as she saw Claire leave, now was her chance to get Leon back into her arms. She got up and slid into the seat that Claire had vacated.

"Hey Leon." She said in what she hoped was a sexy whisper. He sat with his chin in his palm, twirling noodles around his fork as he brooded.

"Not now Marilyn, I'm not in the mood."

"Aww, what's the matter honey?" She asked, pouting. He glanced at something over her shoulder and sighed,

"Nothing." She turned around to see what he'd glanced at and gasped, her sister! Leon had some kind of feelings for Ashley, the sister that she never had any trouble competing with until a score of months ago when Ashley decided to go on that no sugar diet. That slut! Not only was she marrying a wealthy lawyer, but she was also possibly sleeping with her father's finest government agent! How dare she!? Ashley planned to take both Leon and some of her father's wealth and leave her with nothing!

What was wrong with _her_? Was she getting too old? Was she losing her touch? What could have happened that her youngest sister suddenly became so desirable and she suddenly became as ugly as a donkey?

Marilyn eventually put aside her malicious thoughts and realized that this affair could get Leon into trouble, BIG trouble, and she was probably the only one who knew.

'_**This could work to my advantage.'**_ She thought. She would just have to inform Leon how naughty he was being and threaten him with spilling the news to her father. In time he would see his mistake and come crawling back to her, but he would still have to inform Evan of course, just so he could make her sister's life all the more miserable because of her evil plot to leave her with nothing and cheat on Evan. In the end, it would be Ashley who was left with nothing, not her.

'_**Yes' **_she decided, it was a wonderful plan! But first, she decided, she would get rid of Leon's date, Claire Redfield.

The restroom of the restaurant was elaborately designed with beautifully crafted marble counters with seashell sinks and stalls with automatically flushing toilets. It was a luxury that Claire wasn't used to, living in an apartment as she did, and as she pushed open the bathroom door on her way out, she loathed the fact that she was going back to the dining table.

She saw Leon's hunched shoulders and realized that he was still brooding. She shook her head,

'_**I bet if Steve was in Leon's situation he would do something about it!'**_ She sighed, there she went, thinking about Steve again, but she had to remember, Leon wasn't like Steve, they were almost complete opposites and she somehow knew that Steve's advice wasn't going to help **Leon** in a situation like this. If she was planning to help Leon, she would have to find someone who thought like Leon, someone who was older and wiser and had been through a lot more of these situations...

'_**Chris!' **_Claire thought, _**'He would know what to do!'**_ If anyone could help Leon it was Chris, Claire was sure of it! But wait, what on earth was she thinking!?

'_**Chris is too hardheaded to even recognize when a woman is interested in him!'**_ As she recalled, Jill was the one who made the first move in their relationship. Leon would definitely have to find someone else; Chris Redfield did not know squat about women. But who could help him? Who _would _help him? Who would be willing to break up the President's daughter and her beau for the sake of one of her father's government agents? She just didn't know.

She was on her way back to the dining table, lost in a thoughtful daze when she crashed into someone and had their glass of red wine spill down the front of her dress. She gasped in surprise, turning to find that the culprit was Ms. Marilyn Graham. Marilyn could barely contain her laughter as she looked at the poor state of her enemy's dress. There was a large purple stain flowing from her bosom down to her hips.

"Oops! Very sorry darling! It's such a shame that that cloth you found at a thrift store came to such a waste!" She chuckled spitefully. Claire, trying to keep from erupting into a rage, and getting herself thrown out of the restaurant, for Leon's sake, brushed off the spiteful apology as if it were nothing.

"Well I suppose I should have been more careful and paid more attention to where I was going," She sighed, "It's all right Marilyn, I'll just go clean up in the bathroom." Marilyn gaped, the girl walked away without so much as a trace of anger on her features! What was it going to take to get a rise out of the girl! Did she have to corner her and teach her a lesson? The manly way? With fist fights and bloodied knuckles? Oh, she hoped not... bruised knuckles, or worse, a black eye if the girl chose to fight back, was not what she needed right now... She decided that she would think of something else at a later time.

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Claire was more than happy to be going back int the restroom instead of to the dining table, she was not in the mood to hear Leon vent about the problems that he claimed were unfixable. She shook her head, if she weren't here with Leon and the President's family, she would have given Marilyn a piece of her mind, that had been one nasty remark she had mouthed about her dress...

'_**Well I'm sorry that I'm not wealthy enough to buy dresses made from the finest french designers! What do you want me to do? Rob a bank?'**_ She thought testily.

She grabbed a handful of paper towels and began to clean herself up. She chafed at the wet stickiness of her dress as she tried to get the stain out, absently wondering if the smell of alcohol would ever come out.

She angrily scrubbed the sticky stain, grumbling under her breath and wishing that she'd brought her Tide bleach pen along with her.

"I bet Marilyn wouldn't have lasted an hour in Raccoon City." Just as she'd said it, a noise sounded from the ventilation shaft above her. The sound was one she feared most, one she thought that she'd never hear again. It was like that of suction cups and splashing through knee-deep water. She stared up at the vent for an accumulation of five minutes, frozen in horror. Her heart rate increased and she could no longer avert her eyes from where her worst fears lay. She narrowed her eyes, daring it to come out. She heard a hiss as if the creature had accepted her challenge and heard it take off in a hurry down the shaft.

She took out the tiny pistol she had hid in the secret pocket of her clutch purse and decided that she was going to stop it from ruining her evening. She ran towards the door, hoping to go for Leon's help but thought better of it, realizing that word must have gotten around about her recent mental issues, from Chris of course, the doctors were sworn to secrecy. Chris _had_ mentioned seeing Leon at the police academy when he had gone to the ceremony to accept his award. She of course, had to stay home on her doctor's orders. Well, Chris hadn't really mentioned much about his encounter with Leon, only that he was doing well and was working for the secret service, but he could have slipped the condition of her mental health to Leon and forgotten to tell her about it.

She locked the bathroom door to keep anyone from intruding incase the creature decided to come back and break through the vent. The only ones who were capable of believing her were Leon and Ashley, but Leon might be harder to convince if he'd talked to Chris at all recently...

Fetching the tiny screwdriver out of her bag, she climbed up onto the bathroom counter and opened the ventilation shaft, coughing, sputtering and blinking her eyes a few times as a load of dust fell on her, sticking to the stain on her dress and turning her hair gray. After the dust had cleared, she hoisted herself up and into the dirty ventilation shaft, trying to still her sneezes so that she wouldn't be in danger of attracting the monster. For such a nice restaurant, they were horrible at keeping their ventilation shaft clean. The shaft was quite small and provided just enough room for her to crawl army-style through the dust and grime. The tunnel was long and dark and her dress was almost black with dust by the time she was halfway through the shaft. That was when she saw it, highlighted by the small amount of light provided by the vent opening, just as she'd suspected, a licker.

Her heart rate increasing at lightning speed, she quickly snatched the pistol from her garter-belt, aiming as best as she could so as not to miss and have the bullet ricochet, or worse, miss and have the monster kill her. As she moved to get a better shot, she felt the shaft start to wobble beneath her and she faintly wondered if it was safe to proceed without the shaft collapsing.

Meanwhile, Marilyn was sitting back at her own seat at the dining table, having given up on her attempts to comfort Leon, the guy was hopeless! She was mindlessly watching the orchestra play when she saw a trail of dust fall from the ventilation shaft onto Leon's shoulder. He hadn't noticed, treating himself to dessert. Marilyn looked up at the shaft to see it wobbling uncontrollably before hearing a muffled gun shot and some strange inhuman screech. The shaft collapsed, dropping two figures covered in black filth onto the dessert that had just been brought, breaking the legs and collapsing the thousand-dollar dining table. The shaft poured a huge amount of dust and filth out over the dining room, covering everyone in guck. The orchestra had ceased their playing to squint through the thick haze of dust in confusion.

Claire was dazed, having fallen onto the hard table and having the wind knocked out of her. The licker however was whining in pain, a bullet implanted in its brain, but it quickly ignored its pain when it spotted Ashley, causing all of the women at the table to shriek as it leapt towards her, its teeth almost meeting with Leon's face as he stepped in front of her to protect her. Leon's eyes closed as he braced himself for the monster's mauling. Blood splashed across him and Ashley as three gun shots and another inhuman screech of pain was heard. The two opened their eyes and looked over to find their savior. It wasn't Claire like everyone had expected, it was none other than Ingrid herself, sparkling clean in a decadent teal gown with a smoking magnum in hand. She uncocked it and slipped it into her garter-belt, saluting President Graham.

"Ingrid Hunnigan sir! Reporting for duty!"

The President was silently fuming, too angry to say anything, Marilyn was babbling like a hopeless idiot, upset that her thousand-dollar Ralph Lauren dress was ruined, Leon and Ashley were covered in blood and utterly in shock, and Claire was sitting on the broken table trying to catch her breath while everyone else sat in bewilderment. President Graham spoke up finally,

"Well, since the rehearsal dinner was a complete disaster courtesy of a certain two people..." He paused, looking pointedly at Leon and Claire who were barely recognizable through the blood and grime, "We'll have to delay the wedding!" Evan stood up outraged, he was not about to postpone the wedding.

"But sir! Why should we delay the wedding because of two infuriating commoners!" He riled, indirectly suggesting that Leon and Claire not go to the wedding. Ashley on the other hand, wasn't about to let Evan insult her friends,

"Those _commoners_ are my friends Mr. Bastion! And if daddy says we're going to delay the wedding, we're delaying the wedding!" She stomped off angrily, her outburst possibly a result of her shock as she was unable to believe she was marrying such an inconsiderate person!

The President turned _his_ anger on Leon,

"Leon! You were supposed to be protecting me from accidents like this! Not laying them at my feet!" He shouted, gesturing towards Claire when he said 'accidents'. He was so enraged, Leon swore that he could see steam coming out of his ears. Leon pushed Claire behind him, shielding her from the President's angry shouting as he apologized,

"I'm sorry sir, I-

"Sorry isn't going to save my life!" He stated angrily, "I am dismissing you Mr. Kennedy, go home for once! I won't be expecting you until tomorrow at two in the afternoon!" He turned to Ingrid, "As for you Ingrid, you get a bonus! "Come girls, and Evan, we are leaving!" Evan smirked, knowing full well that President Graham was having second thoughts about letting Leon and Claire attend his daughter's wedding. In Evan's mind, things had gone better than planned.

Leon was a mix of emotion as he looked over at his grime-covered date. She was so thickly covered in muck that she was barely recognized. She smiled at him nervously, a little ashamed of herself for not telling Leon about the licker. Leon glared at her, apparently he wasn't too happy. Leon's shock and bewilderment had slowly turned into resentment and anger.

"Um, oops!" Claire shrugged, looking down to the floor in shame when she realized the statement had not helped her situation but only made Leon's scowl more harsh.

"Claire, what the hell was that!? Do you realize how much trouble you've gotten me in? I could've gotten fired because of you!" He shouted angrily, the dust on his clothes flying everywhere due to his dramatic gestures.

"But Leon! Didn't you see that monster? Everyone could've been dead if I hadn't done something!" Claire reasoned, yet somehow knowing he might not forgive her for putting Ashley in danger. The statement had forced Leon to pause and think for a moment until he realized that Claire was right and that he should be grateful that she agreed to go with him in the first place. Besides, if it weren't for her, the creature could've gotten them unawares, then they'd really be in trouble.

'_**Wait a second, what was something like a viral monster doing in the ventilation system?'**_ Claire noticed his expression change to that of a thoughtful frown.

"What's wrong?" She finally asked, wondering if he was thinking the same thing. He finally shook his head, knowing that this investigation was best left to the police and that he would just get Claire into more trouble.

"Nothing, you're right, we could've been dead on the floor right now if it weren't for you. But next time, call 911 before thinking of removing the creature yourself!" Claire blushed- though it wasn't visible underneath all that dirt and grime-embarrassed that she hadn't done that in the first place.

"Hey, how about I pay for the taxi fare, I think the limo left without us." Leon offered as the two of them left the wrecked restaurant.

* * *

I know, not much to say about Steve, but when you return to this category, he will have quite a large role! I really want to get back to this category ASAP, but for now, on to Zelda!

Remember, Read and Review and I'll try to get back to you!


	4. The King of Evil

Greetings gracious readers, and welcome to the first chapter of Zelda! In case you're wondering, I am continuing the story after Twilight Princess. For those of you who have not read the memo, I will tell you now that this isn't going to be only Zelda and Resident Evil; I plan to include a few other games in my crossover as well. For those of you who were hoping to read more RE, I truly am sorry to say that I won't be returning for another approximately twelve chapters :( (so sad). But when I do return, I plan to spend quite a few chapters on it. Before I go on, I must tell you that I've created a few original Zelda characters of my own, so don't get freaked out when you read about Kerswick, Melonie or Marina because they are just original characters! If you haven't played the game and know nothing of the story or the characters, I would recommend visiting Zeldapedia or you can ask me to send you a quick summary of the game if you haven't played Twilight Princess yet.

Disclaimer: If I owned it, Link would go through a lot more hardships than he normally faces (and there wouldn't be so many goddamn puzzles! That retarded ice block puzzle at the snowpeak ruins was a pain in the ass!)

Chapter 3

The King of Evil

"_**Hunger for power is evil's true root."**_

_**-Judith Moraie-**_

It was a lovely, perfectly radiant day in the land of Hyrule, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and everyone was packing to make the trip to see the annual Carnival of Time, the large event of the coming year. The townspeople of Ordon happily greeted each other as they packed the goats and horses with supplies. It was a custom for everyone to hand-make their own masks to wear at the ceremonial event, the traditional Ordonian masks represented Ordona the light spirit, monkeys, Faron the light spirit or even the bulbins whom retreated to the far reaches of the Gerudo Desert because of the feat of Link's strength.

Talo, whom wore a bulbin's mask was terrorizing the other children and had even succeeded in making Colin's baby sister cry. Uli was trying to calm the baby down while Talo's father gave him an earful, saying that he deserved a good horsewhipping. It had only been a few months since the Twilight war had ended and already things had gone back to normal; well, almost, Link however still felt out of sorts and he sometimes wondered if it was the hero's spirit that was doing this to him. He'd gone back to herding goats with Fado, but it just didn't feel right anymore, he felt as if he no longer belonged there, like he wasn't measuring up to his true potential. The clothes he had worn as a shepherd boy he could barely stand to wear anymore; he couldn't stand a moment without his green tunic or the weight of his weapons on his back. He was so used to not knowing what was going to be around the corner that life in Ordon had become pointless and boring. Now that his tension was gone, he just didn't know what to do anymore, but he guessed that it was better than being a nervous wreck.

He'd kept the wolf stone Midna had kept for him so that he could change from Hylian to wolf anytime he pleased. He had done just that several times since he'd returned, just to go explore the woods at night while the village was asleep. It was exhilarating, being in that body; he could sense and smell so many things he wouldn't have noticed in his regular form. But the thing that got him the most was that the forest seemed to be calling him…with laughter and music, he had felt it before when he'd first entered the sacred grove, but now the feeling had intensified and it was reaching him in dreams. He couldn't recall exactly how many times he'd woken up after dreaming of fairies with pixie dust that tickled his nose, or kids who could never grow up…it was what puzzled him the most about his transformation, other than the fact that he kept distancing himself from the rest of the village…even Ilia. He didn't understand it, wasn't she what he'd always wanted? Yet the moment he got back from his life-changing journey, he didn't really know if marriage to Ilia was what he really wanted anymore… He had seen so much of the world, and he then he came back to his small peaceful hometown and the matter of Ilia's love and devotion, Ilia's desire to stay in Ordon and raise a family. After seeing all that there was to see, he didn't really want to stay in Ordon for the rest of his life, not when there was so much more he could be doing to help out in the world.

Link was currently helping the men load the covered wagon with goat milk and cheese to sell at the Carnival of Time, as well as a fresh supply of Ordonian Catfish, a rare delicacy found only in the rivers of Ordon village.

Ilia came up to him as he finished tying off the crates of goat milk. She giggled as she approached him,

"So, ready for the Carnival of Time?" She asked, the string of her mask hanging around her neck, the Spirit of Ordona spring, or what it was believed to look like anyway, none other than one with a heart of light could actually look upon the spirits of light and in Hyrule, sadly there were not many with hearts full of light. A smile was borne on her face as he turned around to look at her,

"I don't know," He answered truthfully, "I don't even know what my new year's resolution is going to be." She smiled willing to give him her advice,

"Well, how would you like to improve upon yourself?" she asked him. Wow, that was a tough question to answer, especially in front of Ilia and he wasn't sure he could answer with the whole truth without hurting her feelings.

"Hmm…let's see…" he pondered, "Well it could be to be more athletic, but I don't really know how I could be with all the things I already do each day…" he rubbed his chin in deep thought. Ilia spoke up,

"You know, it could be to be more outgoing and spend more time with your friends." She said, hinting at the fact that he had been unusually antisocial since he'd returned. Link nodded, agreeing with her,

"Yeah I guess you're right, I apologize if it seems like I've been avoiding you lately." He said, rubbing the back of his neck. Ilia shook her head,

"No, it's me who should be sorry for making you feel guilty, you've probably just been reflecting on your journey and have needed some time away from everybody, I'm sure that you weren't deliberately distancing yourself from everyone." Link smiled nervously,

"Yeah of course not, my mind is just trying to absorb what happened in the past few days is all, I'll be back to normal in no time." He said, knowing in his heart it was all a lie, who was he kidding? He would never again be the same shepherd boy that Ilia grew up with his battles had scarred him, hardened him both mentally and physically, for life.

"You promise that nothing's wrong?" She asked, Link sighed, there was no way he could say no to Ilia and her emerald-green puppy-dog eyes.

"Yes, everything's fine." He assured her. There was a look of concern on her face, as if she'd read something in his eyes that had troubled her. She grew closer and pulled him into a heartfelt hug one in which he reluctantly gave into. He didn't know what was wrong with him, somehow he just wasn't attracted to her anymore, he could no longer think of her as anything but a friend. No, curiously another woman invaded his thoughts and fantasies, Zelda, Princess of Hyrule. Ever since he'd first laid eyes on her, he somehow knew that he was meant to be with that woman, he was meant to protect her 'till the end. Her beauty surpassed even Ilia's and his sudden feelings for her had gotten him so confused with who he used to pine for that he didn't know what to do. He had been hiding away in his house like some hermit, waiting for his jumbled feelings to right themselves again. But it didn't happen, his affection for Zelda had grown fonder and his affection for Ilia had all but faded. He barely even knew this woman and he was fawning over her like some lovesick swain.

"Link, promise you won't keep secrets from me, friends shouldn't keep secrets from each other." She nodded as she pulled away from him, looking up at him as if asking him what was wrong. He was about to answer her when they were interrupted by the rambuncous Talo,

"Link, Ilia we're leaving!" He shouted obnoxiously.

"Hey what are you two lovebirds still doing down there!?" Beth called after them. The supply wagon and everyone along with it was already moving along the forest path while Link and Ilia had been busy conversing with each other.

Ilia hurriedly ran up the path shouting apologies after telling Link that they'd talk later. Link on the other hand trailed slowly behind, secretly glad to be leaving Ordon again, his memories of the princess coming to mind as he tread the path he had walked so many times before.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

The chill of the morning air was welcoming to the citizens of Castle Town as most of them got their supplies ready to make the trip to Termina. Though many stayed behind because they either didn't have the money, their homes and belongings were demolished during the Twilight war, or they were too old to make the journey, many considered the Carnival of Time as a tradition. People went to celebrate the coming of the New Year and the hero who saved the land of Termina with the help of the four giants. Masks were worn at every celebration to represent something important or memorable in each person's life. The list of traditional masks worn was endless. The celebration was going to be filled with dancing, fireworks and laughter, but for Princess Zelda, it was only going to be a matter of headaches and boredom.

She usually made the trip to Termina every year for the annual Carnival of Time, for it was custom for royalty to make an appearance at such a large event, but this time she would be stuck in Hyrule, calculating the number of death tolls from the Twilight war and the cost of damages done to her kingdom, she had absolutely no time to celebrate. She sighed, rubbing her forehead tiredly, turning her attention to her courtyard as she did. The courtyard that held so much history and so many memories. All of her ancestors had been married in the courtyard and had played as children in that courtyard. And now she watched her father's soldiers practicing battle strategies and fencing techniques, led by their new official, just out of training, Captain Melonie. The girl graduated with the best grades in her battle strategy and fencing classes, she was the daughter of the renegade hero Auru, whom she learned most of her training from. She promised the princess that she would turn her poor excuse for an army into men worthy of protecting the throne.

Zelda surely hoped so; this kingdom sorely needed guards worthy of that task. Zelda had full confidence in the girl, she_ was_ the daughter of Auru, and she was perhaps the fiercest female Zelda had ever met. Originally, she was going to give the position of captain of the guard to Link, but he turned it down to her dismay. She knew she would never find a warrior as skilled or experienced and she was tremendously disappointed by his decision.

And so she watched them practice, the sun glinting off of Melonie's red hair and the metal of her guards' armor, she watched them as she did many years ago, when her father was still alive, when she was no more than a child with hopeful wishes and an innocent mind. She had once believed that her father would live forever, that he was invincible, that he could never be destroyed with an evil force such as the red death.

The disease had been going around during that time, she had been thirteen when it happened, and it was said to be so contagious that she hadn't been allowed anywhere near him, not even to say goodbye. Because of her father's death, she was forced to turn her attention to more important matters that didn't involve tea parties or dolls, thus crushing what little childlike innocence and naivety she had left.

As a child, she'd always dreamed of becoming queen, of standing up against all odds to take that extra step for the country she so dearly devoted her life to. Yet she had never dreamed of facing the infamous Ganondorf like her great ancestors had, or even having to make the decision of her kingdom's life or death; that choice, however easy it would seem to some, had been the hardest decision she'd ever had to make. Of course, her first decision would have been to die fighting, rather than just lying down and letting Zant destroy her kingdom. But the matter was that she would have been putting innocent lives at stake if she had chosen otherwise. Zelda angrily knit her brows together as she looked back at her work, feeling utterly helpless beneath the onslaught of damage costs. 3000 rupees to rebuild the roof of someone's home, it was outrageous. To further add to her stress, according to the ancient books of legend, the coming year was going to be named the year of the maidens.

Long ago, an old ancestor of Zelda's prophesized a great terror that would leave its mark on the universe for centuries to come. She had had this dream for many nights until the dream distressed her so much that she became deathly ill and died at the age of 32. She had described in her hundred-year-old journal that she saw young, fair maidens being sacrificed to beastly, unearthly creatures in marriage. These maidens were of pure heart and mind and so were given the name, "Princesses of Heart", a term that in this age is used quite loosely. The maidens were forced to succumb to the will of these evil men and give up their power, thus turning the world into an age of darkness and destruction. Her ancestor had also mentioned that she had seen a great granddaughter of hers in the dream and Zelda had fervently hoped that that granddaughter was not her. In fact, she sorely hoped that her grandmother had been a complete lunatic and was merely hallucinating or going mad at the time. Yet, her first ancestor was not believed when _she_ had her prophecy of Ganondorf taking over Hyrule.

However, if the prophecy did prove to be true, every heiress knew a way to prevent it from happening, at least one of the maidens had to be crowned queen.

Zelda had talked with the nobles and her advisors as well as her people about allowing her a crowning ceremony without the requirement of a male counterpart. Out of fear and the realization that Princess Zelda had been a better ruler than all of the kings before her, they agreed to make her their queen. Her crowning ceremony was to take place two days after the Carnival of Time, after that, all of her worries would vanish, or so she hoped.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Kerswick was a young knight who was largely respected across the land of Hyrule. He was twenty-two years old and Zelda's closest advisor and dearest friend. As a boy, Kerswick lived in the village of Kakariko, spending his days swimming in the Eldin spring and running up the dirt path to Death Mountain to visit the Gorons, whom he'd once tried to best at sumo-wrestling but failed miserably. His father had been a guardsman at Hyrule Castle Town. The King's best general as his mother had always liked to put it. And Kerswick had to admit, ever since his father had retired, Hyrule's protective forces had gotten considerably weak and cowardly. His father used to take him to the castle on weekends so he could play with the princess. According to his father, she had always complained that nobody wanted to play with her or came to visit. Kerswick remembered getting all dressed up and having his shoes shined and his hair combed for his play dates with the Princess of Hyrule. Because he had gone to see her so much, they had become the best of friends and some even went so far as to say that they were going to be betrothed. In fact his father had even encouraged him to court her. Kerswick however, had known better. As beautiful as Princess Zelda was, he could never really think of her as more than a friend and he was pretty sure that she thought the same of him. And besides how in the world was _he_ going to rule a country? It's not like he wanted to be the king anyway, Zelda would do just fine without one, he was sure of it. His father would've called him a fool. Like he always used to say, "love won't pay the mortgage, or put porridge in your bowl son, that's why you marry high-classed and sophisticated, look at me I married your mother didn't I?" but Kerswick never believed in all of that, he thought it was rubbish. Well he may not have been interested in Zelda, but there was one woman in particular who was effectively pulling his heart strings. She was a graduate from the Swordsman School in Termina and was currently living in Castle Town with her grandfather who happened to be the town's doctor. She was eighteen years old like Zelda with stunning bright blue eyes and hair that was an extraordinary shade of Mediterranean-blue, which was odd for _any_ Hylian. She had told him once about why it happened to be that color, she said that she'd been staying over at her grandfather's house when she was five and he'd been concocting a blue healing potion for one of his patients. He'd warned her not to tamper with it, but being only five years of age, she hadn't listened and decided to mix it with some of his other potions. When he'd found her, his shout of surprise had startled her so badly that she fell off of the stool she'd been sitting on and the blue-green liquid spilled out all over her head. She told him that her grandfather had been furious because he had made the blue potion with the last of the remaining ingredients. Ever since then, they had done everything possible to try and get the color out of her hair, they tried dying it, shampooing it numerous times until her scalp was scrubbed raw, and even cutting it, but to no avail, it had always grown back the same blue-green color. Kerswick had asked her what color it had been originally, but she said that she couldn't recall. She told him her name after that, _"By the way, you're talking to your kingdom's new lieutenant sir Kerswick, the name's Marina and I'm very pleased to meet you!"_

Marina…a name associated with the sea, it fitted her perfectly.

Kerswick climbed the ladder to one of the four watchtowers, knocking himself out of his reverie as he assumed his next duty, to check on the watchmen's progress, well really it was just a hunch or a feeling in his gut that provoked this action, for it was not one of his regular duties. He breathed deeply of the cool, Hyrulian morning as he looked over the landscape of eastern Hyrule, proud of the country's natural beauty. It was a few moments before he addressed the guardsmen, whom weren't paying much attention to their duties. As usual, they were slacking off.

"Men! To your posts!" He shouted angrily, frustrated with them for their laziness. Before, during the Twilight war, guards at watchtowers were obsolete, they were all too frightened to stand guard with all of the unseemly creatures running around, and so Castle Town was unprotected and monsters would practically enter whenever they wanted! However, that time was past, it was unacceptable for Princess Zelda's guards to be like this, they were supposed to be protecting the kingdom! The guardsmen quickly stood up in formation,

"Sir!" they shouted, some of them cowering with fear. Kerswick clasped his hands behind his back and walked a few circles around the guardsmen, taking a good look at each of them and shaking his head in disapproval.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, it's a good thing we have Captain Melonie and Lieutenant Marina here to help keep you in line or we'd have a serious problem on our hands." He said, the guards bowed their heads in self-loathing. "What if something were to happen, would you be aware of it, lazing about the way you do?" He scolded, laughing in disbelief, "You wouldn't know a stampede of warthogs if they spit fireballs at you!" He shouted, an arrow doused with flames splitting into the stone next to his head as he said it. He spun around in alarm, to see not warthogs, but black stallions, carrying forms in black and gold armor and stampeding toward the castle gates. The forms in black and gold shot fire arrows toward the watchmen whom of which were cowering in fear or scrambling towards the exit. Kerswick grabbed a hold of the few who were aiming to escape, maneuvering them towards the drawbridge pulleys.

"Hurry men! Pull up the bridge! And sound an alarm to the other watchtowers we can't let those bastards get anywhere near the castle!" He shouted over the clamoring of hooves as he climbed down to warn the people of Castle Town and Princess Zelda.

He ran as fast as he could to the castle, barely able to breathe once he reached the Princesses chambers.

"Kerswick!" She gasped in surprise as he burst through her chamber doors, "What in the name of Farore is going on, and what is that arrow sticking out of your coat?" She questioned, pointing to the sharp protruding arrow that had torn through his velvet blue tailcoat. They must have shot bundles of arrows at him in his mad romp for the castle, he wondered if the guards were alright, but he sincerely doubted it.

Captain Melonie burst through the door, a look of terror on her face as she shouted her distress,

"Your majesty! There are over a thousand black war horses at the gates! We don't have nearly enough men to fend them off and none of the ones that we do have own enough guts to stand up to an army like this!" Zelda ran to the window looking out to Castle Town below, the people retreating to their homes in fear as the soldiers outside bashed the gates in with a tree they'd cut down and fashioned into a battering ram. In no less than a few minutes, the soldiers made it through the gates, raiding the small castle town. There was one who walked amidst all the chaos, wearing the most elegant and elaborate of armor as he walked leisurely to the doors of Hyrule Castle as if he had all the time in the world. He wore a large helmet to hide his face, possibly so he could not be recognized? The three of them watched from the window in the tallest tower as the man broke the doors down in front of him with a ray of power, killing the guards that had been previously barricading the doors.

"We have to hurry." Zelda realized, it wasn't going to be long until that man reached the tower, "Captain I am entrusting you with an heirloom of the royal family," She said unearthing a broken stone in the floor and removing a beautiful gold box embedded with crystals and jewels in the shape of the Triforce. She quickly opened the box, removing the ancient heirloom that hadn't been used since her first ancestor locked away Ganondorf in the void of the evil realm, the Ocarina of Time. She dropped it into the waiting hands of Melonie whose face held an expression of bewilderment.

"But I don't know_" Zelda held up her hand in a silencing gesture,

"Do not worry Captain, I do not expect you to know how to play it, I want you to find Link of Ordona Province and give this to him, it will ensure our safety." Captain Melonie nodded, carefully pocketing the thousand-year-old item.

"As for you Kerswick, you get a most important task that you may not entrust to anyone else, not even Link; Kerswick, I want to entrust you with my power of Wisdom." She said, quickly grasping his hand and transferring her power to him before he had a chance to protest. He glanced at his hand when it was done, there on the back of his hand was tattooed the Triforce of Wisdom.

"But Majesty…" He began, but she stopped him,

"Kerswick, I'm doing what's best for the kingdom. Now I want you to find Link as well, but never ever give the Triforce up to anyone, or our world may become a pit of destruction." Kerswick nodded, rubbing the sacred symbol on the back of his hand in awe,

"I understand your Majesty, I will take great care of the power you have given me, until next we meet, I bid you adieu." He bowed gracefully, then took her hand and politely brushed a kiss upon it, looking to escape through the window after he did so. Captain Melonie put a fist to her chest and bowed, saluting the Princess of Hyrule for what she feared may be the last time.

"I bid you adieu as well your Majesty, be careful." She warned as she exited through the tower window and climbed down the ivy after Kerswick. Zelda watched the window for a moment in silence, not knowing what she would do. She may have given up her power to Kerswick, but the princess still had her wits about her and she could fight if ever the need arose. Suddenly the door burst open and Zelda stood there stunned, taken aback by the man's familiar arrogance. The man paused in the doorway, staring at her through the large helmet as if taking in his victory. He reached up and lifted his black and gold-adorned helmet to reveal the one individual she dreaded most. As she looked into his malicious gaze, she knew without a doubt that she was doomed, the year of the maidens had arrived, Ganondorf had returned.

"Greetings your Highness," He sneered, his large voice echoeing through the room as he presented himself with a mock bow. She unsheathed the jeweled dagger hanging on her bedpost and held it in front of her, daring him to come closer. He chuckled, holding his palm out in front of him, with a frown, the dagger's blade cracked and shattered into a hundred tiny pieces. She gasped, looking at the empty jeweled handle she now held in dismay. He laughed at her hopeless expression,

"You're going to have to try harder Princess."

"What do you want!?" She demanded angrily, throwing down the jeweled handle, her brows drawing together into an unrelenting frown of hate.

"How kind of you to think of others before yourself…" He mocked, "What I want Princess will depend on how much you are willing to risk for your kingdom." He grinned, she arched a brow, her suspicions growing, "The year of the maidens has arrived Princess, and according to its prophecy, it is written that I can become one of the most powerful beings in the universe if we were to wed." Her face twisted in disgust, though she was not surprised that he had chosen to bring up this topic,

"I will never marry you!" She declared, this man had destroyed her home and caused trouble for her ancestors, what made him think he had the right to ask for her hand in marriage? He shook his head, chuckling again,

"Princess I do not need your permission, I would only like to give you the choice of your kingdom's life or death. I have the little town within these walls and Kakariko Village under my control, not to mention Lake Hylia and Zora's Domain and soon Death Mountain will be under my control as well. You see, if you refuse to marry me, all I have to do is snap my fingers and all of your precious townspeople will be slaughtered, their homes burned, their livestock killed, their rupees pillaged. If you refuse Princess, the land you have known for the past few years will cease to exist." He finished, triumph sparkling in his dark eyes. Ganondorf knew Princess Zelda to be as weak and pathetic as her foolish predecessors when it came to situations like this; it was not in her nature to say no. And yet, Zelda seemed _different_… she seemed diminished, weaker, the glowing aura of strength that normally surrounded her was not there, and it puzzled Ganondorf as to where it had gone. Why had she not tried to fend him off with her power of Wisdom?

"Princess, I have noticed a change in you," he mentioned, he could feel her sudden fear as he laughed, discovering what the change was, "You have lost your power…but how?" She glared at him defiantly, crossing her arms and keeping her mouth shut. She was not going to give him any information about why she was powerless. He wondered if it was because she was protecting someone, or if it was just pride, he guessed it was the former.

"Link destroyed you and left you for dead, how were you able to return?" She asked irritably.

"Ah yes that damned barbarian's descendant did do a number on me, but it was not enough, if you looked back at your Hylian history books my dear, you would see that your ancestor, the first Princess Zelda, had me banished to the void of the evil realm. I wager that she was the only one of her relatives who bore such intelligence. Furthermore, to have been able to do that, you would have needed the help of the seven sages_"

"Yes the seven sages, my father told me many stories of my ancestors Ganon, I do not need to hear them from you."

"Yes well, unfortunately for you _I_ have control of the seven sages, so they will not be able to help you." He grinned in satisfaction.

"You still haven't answered my question, how were you able to return?" She retorted impatiently. He smiled slyly.

"You really want to know? Well then I suppose I shall continue with my tale. I was lying on that field, feeling my blood soak the earth as death slowly came to me, darkening my senses. I lost all hope of becoming revived again when a lovely, sophisticated young woman came to me, releasing me from my pain with the prick of a needle and a transfusion of blood. She pleaded with me to help out her cause and told me that she had much to offer if I did. She explained to me that she hailed from another world, a world in which kings and queens almost cease to exist. She told me that she ran a large industry called "Umbrella" who studied and produced miracles such as bringing the dead back to life. She was even kind enough as to inform me of the prophecy and told me that I would get a fair share of her throne and power. I agreed to her terms and she supplied me with over one-thousand black stallions and plenty of rupees for supplies and luxuries. Heh, heh, heh, as for the return of the Gerudos, you may take that up with the Prince of Darkness milady." Zelda stood there in astonishment and disbelief, who in the world would have enough power to transport to other worlds and release someone from the pain of death? It was almost too much for her to comprehend, she felt like she would cry, something she hadn't done in years.

"Princess, I believe that you owe me an answer." He coaxed impatiently. Princess Zelda looked out over the town that had now been ransacked by the Gerudos. The people huddled inside their homes in fear, Zelda with no wish to see her kingdom perish nodded resentfully,

"Yes, I accept your offer." A tear fell from her violet eyes as she said this and Ganondorf exited, chuckling to himself triumphantly as he did so. She heard the door shut and the locks go into place. She looked back, staring at the locked door as she thought,

'_**Kerswick, Melonie, you must hurry! Goddesses please do not let harm befall my precious kingdom!'**_

................................................................................................................................................

The moment that Kerswick entered town, he knew instinctively that there was no way out. There were women in menacing gold and onyx armor marching through the town and they had the three drawbridges locked up tight. He, Melonie and the townspeople were trapped within the city. He pulled Melonie into the bushes with him and began to shed his armor.

"Whoa! Kerswick what the hell are you doing? Now is not the time to be coming on to me like some adolescent squire!" A disgusted look came over Kerswick's features.

"What in the name of Lanayru are you talking about? I'm shedding my armor so I don't get killed and I suggest you do the same!" Melonie hesitated for a moment, and then began stripping her armor until she was once again in her dreaded peasant garb. The two of them realized that they would need to leave their weapons behind as well to keep from being noticed. Melonie however, refused to part with her gold-handled daggers, they had been a gift from her father, Auru, and she didn't want to run the risk of them being stolen. They reluctantly left the covering of foliage moments later without the comfortable protection of armor. The royal courtyard was completely empty, so it was actually no problem to transcend the stone pathway without being noticed. The guards that Melonie had been training were littered along the grassy patches, dead as doornails. She felt as if her training had been for nothing, wasted along the ground as they were. And it was tear-jerking, sure they had been cowards but they had grown on her like they were her own children. She pushed the sight of their mangled bodies from her mind as they exited the courtyard and focused on the task at hand. By the look of it, they were the only two civilians who'd decided to leave the safety of the area in which they'd been hiding. Therefore, they were immediately surrounded by Gerudo soldiers.

"You there," one of them shouted, "I want those daggers, give them to me!" She commanded, her javelin pointed at Melonie's throat.

"Please miss, they were a present from my father, I don't even know how to wield them." She lied, hoping the girl would have sympathy for such a lowly peasant.

"Hand over your rupees then wench!" she snapped. Melonie pulled her wallet out of her pocket before having it ruthlessly snatched out of her hands and having her sixty rupees stolen. After taking Kerswick's meager amount of ten rupees, the women seemed satisfied and let them go. The two of them quickly walked away and Melonie looked at Kerswick suspiciously,

"Why did you only have ten rupees?"

"You see Melonie, I'm not one to carry around five-hundred rupees when something this drastic happens, its pure foolishness."

"But I thought you were rich."  
"I am, I just choose not to flaunt it."

"Oh…" She uttered as they turned the corner to Telma's bar. The bar door however seemed to be sealed shut, for it wouldn't even budge when Kerswick pulled on the knob. Melonie raised a hand and knocked loudly, certain that the door would open when she did, but it did not. Kerswick stepped aside and pointed to the window where Telma's cat, Louise was sitting and called,

"Louise, here kitty kitty."

"Meow?" was Louise's response as she spotted Kerswick and darted back inside to claw at the front door, meowing loudly for Telma to let them inside.

"Oh Louise would you be quiet!? Those thieves will find us if you keep meowin' like that!" Louise frowned and glared at her owner, clawing at the door angrily in frustration. Telma scowled,

"Louise, you had better stop it now before you get yourself into trouble!" Louise rolled her eyes, turned on her heel in a huff and leapt back up into the window. She pushed the shutters open more fully, motioning with her head and a meow for them to enter through the window. Kerswick nodded to Melonie,

"Right, let's go in this way."

"What? You're going to take the advice of a house pet?" She asked in disbelief. He looked at her, annoyed by her attitude,

"Yes I am it seems to be the only way we can get in right now." He said, climbing the milk crates so he could squeeze into the small window opening. However, the window was so small and cramped that he was unable to maneuver himself correctly and fell flat on his face on the hard stone floor.

Telma looked over in surprise to see Zelda's advisor sprawled out on her stone floor, she ran over to his side to help him up.

"Kerswick honey, what are you doin' here? I thought for sure that you would have made it out before this ruckus came along." Telma said as Kerswick helped the captain through the window.

"Yes I thought so too, but they have the gates locked up tight and they're not letting anyone through."

"Well, they're going to run into a few problems if they plan on keepin' us locked up forever."

"Yes I agree, they won't be able to keep us locked up all the time, the merchants need to be able to trade with other towns and provinces to keep the people from running out of goods. They're going to have to open them eventually, and when they do, Melonie and I have to search for Link of Ordona Province." Telma nodded.

"Well yes of course, Link may be the only person who can rescue us from this kind of disaster. He's done it once we can only pray that he'll be able to do it again." Melonie looked around in distress,

"Telma, where's my father? And Shad and Rusl and Ashei?"

"Oh, Auru didn't tell you honey? He and the others went to Termina for the carnival, I stayed behind to take care of the shop but now I think that it may have been a mistake." Melonie sighed with relief, the tension easing from her shoulders,

"So Kerswick, what do we do now?" He rubbed the back of his head in thought,

"Well I guess that all we can do is wait it out until they start allowing people through the gates."

"You won't have to wait long honey, the merchants and elderly folk will be complainin' soon enough when they're unable to buy hot spring water to fill their bathtubs. And besides, how are they going to supply anyone at the castle if the merchants are unable to trade with other towns?" Telma pointed out. Kerswick sprouted an idea,

"So then, if we were to pose as merchants when that time came, we'd be able to go free." Telma shook her head,

"You're goin' to need a merchant's license, here honey borrow mine, I've got no business leavin' this town right now anyhow, and you two will be far better off, what with your fencing skills and training." Kerswick nodded,

"Thank-you Telma, we will always appreciate what you've done for us."

"Oh don't thank me, just have yourself a glass of sherry to warm you up before you leave, we don't want you to catch your deaths out there in this weather, what with the pressure bein' on ya to save Hyrule…" The both of them nodded their thanks and took the glasses gratefully. They spent the rest of the afternoon in Telma's bar, waiting until nightfall when they could sneak out under the cover of darkness.

They traveled to Melonie's home in the lower area of eastern Castle Town and decided to spend the night there until they had a plan of action.

* * *

Hello again readers, I know it focused a lot on the original characters, and believe me it was a very tedious chapter to write. But don't worry, the next chapter actually has nothing to do with my original characters and I have even put in a few surprises for you hardcore Zelda fans. Well read and review and I'll get back to you! Until next time!


	5. The Carnival of Time

Hello once again, I am back with another wonderful chapter of Zelda! I know, for some of you, namely Resident Evil fans, it is probably a let down and that's why most of you haven't reviewed in a while :(. You are no doubt sharpening those chainsaws so that you can cut off my head later (or you are playing the new RE 5, have taken me off of your favorites list, and are purposefully killing off your character and pretending that it's me XD). But to those of you who have reviewed like slouchingtyger, I thank you it makes me happy to see that people enjoy my story! You Zelda fans on the other hand, are jumping for joy and possibly doing a jig in your living rooms because the Carnival of Time has arrived and I've even thrown in a few surprises that I hope you'll enjoy! Well, take a load off, put up your feet, open up that ice cold Dr. Pepper or whatever beverage you prefer and let's get to it!

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I would totally make myself into a psychotic side character that continually annoys the crap out of the hero.

Chapter 4

The Carnival of Time

_"You have to believe what you feel in your heart, let's choose to believe."_

_-Sophia Esteed, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time-_

"Hurry up Link, we're gonna miss the fireworks!" Talo yelled, running ahead of the others, his voice muffled beneath his mask and the encroaching crowd.

"Talo, slow down!" Beth complained, out of breath from trying to keep up with him, Colin and Ilia were following close behind, but Link still lagged far behind, trying to push through the crowd. He finally stood in front of the stage, looking around for the others until Ilia finally spotted him through the commotion.

"Link, over here!" She called, waving her arms so she could see him. He saw her and walked through the crowd toward her.

"Best seats in the house!" Talo declared, seating himself on the cobblestone walkway in front of center stage. Beth sat next to him, Ilia on her other side as Colin seated himself between Link and Ilia. Malo however, declared that he was too busy setting up his new Malo Mart in Clocktown to enjoy the childish festivities. Before the show was about to start, Colin turned to Link, whom he really hadn't spoken to since they'd returned to Ordon.

"Hey Link. So whattaya think they're gonna do for this year's show?"

"I don't know, hopefully something good." Colin agreed, nodding.

"Link, are you okay? You seem kind of different."

"How so?"  
"Well, instead of wanting to help Fado herd goats or spend time with any of us, you want to take long walks in the woods and it seems like you're always too exhausted to play with us. It isn't like you Link, you used to love herding goats and fishing and all of the other games we used to play, and now it just seems like you're too grown up to play them." Link sighed, dropping his head to his chest when Colin inquired,

"Link, did you _kill_ anyone? 'Cause my dad always says that after war, after a man has killed to survive they're never really going to be the same person they were as a child." Link looked at the younger boy, wishing he hadn't asked that question, he didn't want to be responsible for ruining Colin's childlike innocence.

"You're right Colin, I have grown up, my journey changed me...I barely know who I am anymore. Those walks in the woods...they're more than just about me reflecting on what I've done...there are a lot of things that I haven't told you and perhaps I'll tell you one day when you're older and you're able to understand," He shook his head, forcing a smile, "but now's not the time, right now we should live in the present, join in and laugh through the festivities, and drink milk lattes until we throw up!" Colin laughed, though he was confused as to how Link effectively dodged the question, "At least that's what I think we should do." Link chuckled.

"That sounds like a great idea!" Ilia voiced, breaking into their conversation. She handed Colin and Link 2 bottles of Romani milk from Latte's, strawberry for Colin, chocolate for Link. Deku pipes, Goron drums, Zora instruments and Ocarinas sounded throughout the air, playing the "Ballad of the Wind Fish" as they did every year to start off the festivities. The crowd cheered, the children growing impatient for the dances and performances to begin. Parents were in a frenzy buying milk for their children in hopes that the milk would make them drowzy and more susceptible to watch the festivities without their hyper-energy. The crowd became silent as eerie, high-pitched music began and a single dancer decorated with jewels began to dance onstage.

She had long flowing cocoa-brown hair that reached her thighs, but her face was hidden behind the traditional Kamaro's Mask, the mask of the great dance instructor. After performing the dance twice, four contorsionists, 2 from each side of the stage, decorated with bells and dressed in skintight purple and red outfits. They all wore replicas of Majora's Mask over their faces. Two more dancers twirled onstage, dressed in belly-dancing attire like the dancing leader, each wielding ribbon wands. They each wore veils over their faces, shielding everything from view but their eyes. The music started up again, louder and more instrumental. The leader began her dance again, the dancers behind her following along with their ribbon wands. The contorsionists balanced upon balance-balls painted like the evil moon in the legends, balancing on their hands and twisting their bodies this way and that. Link chuckled as Beth and Talo tried to mimic the dancers. The end of the dance was symbolized by the two fire-breathers wearing half-masks in the front of the stage.

The dancers and contorsionists cleared the stage to make way for the actors who were to reenact the events that happend 1 thousand years ago at the Carnival of Time. Link had seen the show every year for as long as he could remember, though he had never thought that the hero in the play was really him. The hero's spirit responded to the little play with merriment and laughter, obviously, the play was not as accurate as it seemed and therefore underexaggerated. As the actors took their bows to begin the play, Colin pulled at the end of Link's tunic to get his attention,

"Hey Link he looks just like you!" Colin shouted excitedly. Link smiled, chuckling,

"I think you are mistaken Colin, or you've had more than your fill of strawberry lattes...he looks nothing like me." Link denied. Talo came over to them, his face sticky with chocolate milk as he agreed with Colin,

"What are you talking about Link!? He looks just like you!"

"Shh!!" Ilia shushed angrily, trying to watch the show. Beth scooted over next to them, siding with Link,

"You two are such little children, I can't believe you think that the hero of time is still cool! He is so-o-o last millenia! literally! Link looks nothing like him and according to the legends, his instincts and mannerisms don't even come close!" Link wasn't sure if Beth's comments were compliments or insults to his character and somehow he accepted them as both. Talo glared at Beth,

"Gee, thanks for sucking the fun out of everything Beth, funsucker!"

"I do not suck the fun out of everything!" She argued, Colin interrupted them.

"But wouldn't it be cool if Link really was the hero from the legends?"

"Yeah! That'd be totally awesome!" Talo screeched.

"Well of course it would be cool! I mean, the hero of time might be old news, but Link is totally awesome!" Beth screamed like an excited fangirl.

"Don't you think so Link?" Colin asked. Link's smile faded,

"Yeah, that'd be pretty cool..." He said, staring at the actors onstage as he thought about the journey that transformed him from gentle farmboy, to barbaric warrior and he realized that heroism really wasn't what it was cracked up to be.

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A vender selling popcorn and refreshments was positioned next to the stage, a perfect view for a certain two fairies. Barely paid any heed, a yellow fairy and a purple fairy sat atop the popcorn vender, watching the play from afar.

"Tael! Quit hogging the popcorn!" The yellow fairy yelled, trying to grab the bag of giant popcorn kernels away from the purple fairy.

"You're the one who's hogging it! Give it back!" He protested, pulling it over to his side.

"Stop it! you're gonna rip the bag!" She warned, it ripped just as she said it would, right down the middle, spilling all of its contents out over the vendor roof.

"Now look what you did sis! Its all over the place!"

"Good! Now at least you won't hog the bag!" She said, sticking her tongue out at him before nibbling on one of the giant popcorn kernels. Tael shook his head and grumbled loudly in agitation with his sister. Tatl and Tael had lived with the skullkid for most of their lives before he said that he wanted to return to his roots, to the forest. He told them that he needed to take his journey alone but he at least allowed them to escort him to the edge of the woods. The goodbyes were awfully sad and he didn't look as if he'd ever return, or that he was ever going to. He'd said he was homesick, tired of citylife, needed to see the green trees of his homeland again. Tatl knew in her heart that he was never going to return, he hadn't done so for five hundred years now, she often wondered if he'd died, or just faded away from existence.

Tatl and Tael had traveled back to their own land during this time, to see what was left of their family. But it seemed as if they'd been away for too long, after all, a year in fairyland was like twenty in the real world. When they'd returned to Termina, the fairies in the land were almost obsolete, people didn't even know what a fairy was anymore... Since she and Tael had returned to Termina, it was more than once that she'd been called a "firefly from hell" or even risked getting put in a bug jar from people who mistook her for a golden insect, whatever the heck that was...

She realized that if the fairies were dying off, then the forest must be dying off as well. It was the first time in a few hundred years that she and Tael had watched the Carnival of Time and it sort of angered and depressed her that they hadn't even thought of putting them, Tatl and Tael, the most important part of the story, as far as she was concerned, into their reenactment play. In truth she was furious, but she decided that the actors weren't worthy of her anger. The last thing she needed was to ruin the play and humiliate herself or worse, cause a big distraction to the audience and have people try to catch her in jars and bottles and sell her as a golden insect so people could "share their happiness" or some nonsense like that...

Tael on the other hand was too busy trying to charm the lovely young debutaunts and nobles' daughters who were there from Hyrule's royal court to even care about the show. Although, every woman he'd approached had run away in terror, which Tatl found was extremely hilarious. They all thought he was some new species of dangerous insect called Purple-sparkle-fly or something like that. They thought he was going to sting them! (XD well maybe he was!) '_Ha, what ninnypoos!'_ She scoffed. It wasn't like she could really blame Tael for wanting to charm every pretty girl he came across, after all, girls of his own species were wearing thin. And Tatl would rather he do that then spend all of his time with her, he did get rather annoying at times...

Tatl was busy licking the butter off of her fingers when the play ended and the current mayor, mayor Torjei, a descendant of Kafei, the first mayor's son, and Anju, the first manager of the Stock Pot Inn, announced that it was almost midnight.

"Thank you ladies and gentlemen for joining us in this glorious end of the year celebration, it is exactly 3 minutes to midnight and almost time for the countdown to begin. Princess Zelda of Hyrule apologizes for not being able to attend this evening, she has her hands full with more important duties at the moment and cannot afford to abandon her kingdom after the crisis of the Twilight War. But she wishes for all of you to have a great and merry stay here in Clocktown and hopes that all of you make it home safely. Now please, enjoy the Carnival of Time!" The crowd cheered and whistled as the mayor left the stage and the people began the countdown.

Tatl's eyes were averted to a young man in the front of the crowd accompanied by 3 children and a young woman. He was dressed exactly like the hero of time, but he was not like the actor on stage. The young man looked as if he was forcibly trying to enjoy himself and his eyes held a faraway, almost depressed look to them and they reminded her of the eyes of the sacred beast in the legends. Years ago, when she and Tael were only children, they were told time and again of the hero from legend who could transform into a sacred beast, the young man's eyes were the same eyes she had seen in all of the books of legend and she wondered if it was the same guy...

Realization caught her and she clapped her hands over her mouth to keep herself from calling out his name.

_'Link...but it couldn't be...'_

She thought. Link had been a Hylian and he had lived one thousand years ago, Hylians didn't live forever. She heard the first explosions of fireworks as midnight was reached. The crowd was singing and dancing in the streets, some waving sparklers or ribbon wands. She watched as the young man and his entourage pushed through the crowd and into North Clocktown. Curious, she got up and followed them, praying that no one spotted her as her wings were almost disintegrated into someone's fire-sparkler. She fluttered over the crowd and into North Clocktown, where she carefully hid in the tall grass as she watched the man with his entourage.

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The crowd had settled down by the time Link led them back to North Clocktown and most returned to their homes, hotel rooms or campsites if they were unable to reserve a room. The festival was over and the next day the people from Hyrule and different parts of Termina would be returning to their daily lives. The people from Ordon, as always, had a camping place reserved for them in North Clocktown next to the little playground where it was less concrete and there was the least amount of tourism.

Fado and Sera had gone to sell the goat cheese and milk at the Latte Milk Bar, Malo set up a booth in South Clocktown to sell Malo-Mart goods, and Rusl, Bo, Uli, Beth's father, and Malo & Talo's parents watched to make certain the luggage hadn't been stolen, seeing glimpses of the fireworks show every now and then.

Link had led the way back to the adults, wondering why he'd wanted to return so early. He didn't understand, he used to love going to the Carnival every year- Especially to see the hero of time battle with the skullkid-but now, the thought of hundreds of people gathered around him made him nauseous and made his hair stand on end. He could barely stand to sit on the cold, hard cobblestone, the memory of aching paws from walking continuously on the cobblestone streets of Castle Town caused him to shudder and he had stood for the remainder of the show. It was the beast inside of him, causing these ridiculous reactions in him. His protective awareness was on edge in that crowd, there were so many things he had to watch out for that he was almost unable to enjoy the show. It was actually part of the reason he had wanted to leave so soon. The others were dissappointed and Ilia argued that they should stay awhile, but Link made the excuse that everyone needed their rest for the long journey home the next day.

When they arrived back in North Clocktown, Link earned a surprise greeting from Shad and Auru.

"There you are old chap, we almost missed you!" Shad greeted.

"Yes, we were just about to return to the Stock Pot Inn and retire for the night." Auru voiced.

"How was the Carnival this year Link?" Rusl asked him, "Anything exciting this year?" Link shrugged,

"Same as every year."

"Yes, well they always recount the legend of the hero's journey to Termina, but they always refuse to recount the tale of the war of Ganondorf, do you know why Link?" Auru asked.

"No, but I've always wondered why that is."

"Shad, why don't you tell the boy." Auru chuckled.

"Well, you see old boy, one, nobody wants to make a mask of the poor bloke, and two there is no actor willing to play the bloody role!" Link and the others laughed and for the first time in a while he felt that he could afford to be lighthearted about his travels. To tell the truth, he wanted to get it all off of his chest, he'd wanted to tell them about what had happened on his travels, but he was afraid of Rusl's reaction when he told him that he was the dark beast that had snuck into his home and stole the sword.

Auru looked up at the smoke-filled sky in reminiscence, ignoring Link's worried expression and dismissing it as a thought of his fight with Ganondorf.

"Yes, the Carnival of Time, my father took me here as a lad and I took my daughter when she was a little girl and accompanied her here up until adulthood. I should introduce her to you someday Link, she's about your age, with long auburn-red hair and chestnut-brown eyes. She just graduated from the Castle Town soldiers' academy at the top of her class and she's the new Captain of the Princess's military unit." Link grew curious after he'd mentioned his daughter's connection with the princess.

"What's her name?"

"Her name is Melonie, don't worry lad, I'll be sure and introduce you to her someday, I'm sure that you're eager to meet her." Auru winked, slapping Link heartily on the back.

"Well of course sir, a woman who graduated at the top of her fencing class sounds pretty impressive and I look forward to meeting her one day." Link exclaimed enthusiastically, not taking Auru's hint. Link decided not to bring up the fact that Princess Zelda had offered him the position of Captain just recently, he didn't want it to seem like he thought he was too good for the job.

"By the way, where's Ashei, didn't she come with you?" Link asked, looking around pointedly for the tough mountain-girl.

"Well yes of course she did, she comes every year, but during this time she is usually found in the Curiosity Shop." Auru said matter-of-factly.

"She doesn't like the festival?" Link asked.

"Oh no, she likes it well enough, she would just rather do her own thing when she comes to Termina." Shad told him that Ashei usually spent about a week after the carnival ended exploring the land of Termina. Why? They knew not. They only knew that she loved the land because it held so much danger and ancient history.

Shad sighed, patting Auru's shoulder,

"I believe, old chap, that we should be retiring to our beds for the long journey tomorrow."

"Ah, yes, I'll be seeing you Link, and you as well Rusl, may your journey be a safe one." Shad and Auru waved goodbye as they disappeared into East Clocktown. It was then when Rusl spoke up,

"Link, you are acting very strange lately, I wonder, whatever _did_ happen to you on that battlefield with Ganondorf?"

"Nothing happened, really I'm fine, I'm just suffering the after effects of shock is all." Link insisted.

"Link...I know how battle can effect a man, especially battle with one so evil, and you being so young, it could upset the balance of your life if you don't tell _someone_ lad." Link crossed his arms and looked away, a little irritated with Rusl's lecture, he was not in the mood. "Well, it seems as though you are not ready to tell anyone just yet." He put a hand on Link's shoulder, "But Link, at least promise me this, when you get the feeling that you cannot hold it in any longer and that your chest feels like it's going to explode, at least speak it out loud to _someone_, even if it turns out that you are the only person you can speak it to." Link looked back at him and realized the amount of understanding the man had for his situation and nodded,

"I promise."

"Well, I suppose we should retire for the night, or else we won't be able to keep up with the little ones tomorrow." Rusl and Link each rolled out their sleeping pallets onto the grass and bedded down for the night, knowing they would need their strength for the trip back home.

...........................................................................................................................................

Tatl pushed through the leaves of the tree she was hiding in to see the young hero settling down on his sleeping pallet just beneath it. She'd had to change her hiding place from the grass to avoid being seen and to make sure that she wasn't squashed beneath someone's sleeping pallet. She squealed with excitement and could barely contain her laughter. It was Link! She was sure of it after hearing his conversation with the other warriors! He had grown up and was living with the ranch people who sold milk there every year. But why hadn't she noticed him before? She didn't know and at the moment she didn't really care. She couldn't believe it, he was alive, he was the real thing, he wasn't some kid in a costume! She couldn't stand it, she had to tell Tael!

She left in a hurry, making a loud rustling of leaves as she left the tree and exited Clocktown, making her way through Termina field to her and Tael's home, a large hollowed-out log in the middle of a grassy meadow. By the looks of it, he was home, the lights were on and by the distinction of female laughter, he was entertaining a guest. She entered the house and found that he had finally managed to charm one of the debutants who in fact was almost too big for the fairy-sized home. Her pale-pink gown took up most of the house and Tatl stood there, watching their conversation, realizing that the two hadn't noticed her yet.

The girl was about fifteen, wearing a pale-pink satin day-dress. She had long champagne-blonde locks that were tied into a half updo, golden skin that was darkened from the sun and pretty, exotic golden-brown eyes framed with long, thick eyelashes. Judging from the fact that she had followed Tael home and that her skin was darker than the usual noble girls' fair, creamy complexion, she was definitely different from any debutant Tatl had ever seen. Tael was sitting up on a platform across from her talking about the carnival. Tatl caught a whiff of the strong, pungent fumes that were hanging about the room and realized that Tael was making his Fairies Brew again. The combination of bee pollen and Chu jelly made a person all bubbly and warm inside, not to mention, prone to histerical laughing fits. It was no doubt the reason why they couldn't seem to stop laughing.

"Oh Tatl, how long have you been standing there?" He chuckled when he spotted her. The woman he was with looked over to her as well, her eyes becoming wide with wonder and enchantment.

"Ooh, she's lovely, is she your wife Tael?" The girl asked, Tael burst up laughing at Tatl's shocked expression as she flew over to the girl, annoyance turning her face red.

"I'm not his wife! How dare you say that! Look at this bum! Do you really think that a person of my radiant luminosity would date a couch potato like that?" The girl became embarrassed,

"Oh, I'm sorry your wings were just so glittery and beautiful that I thought that you might belong to the purple-sparkle-fly." She winked at Tael, causing him to fall over because of his weak knees.

"Purple-sparkle-fly?" Tatl laughed, "Is that what they're calling you now? Are you sure it isn't lazy drunkard?" Tael glared at his sister,

"Shut up Tatl..." He warned, shaking his fist at her.

"Lazy drunkard?" The girl asked worriedly.

"Yeah, that's what I said, I take it that Tael hasn't told you about his drinking problem."

"I don't have a drinking problem!" He protested. Tatl took the flask of Fairies Brew he was holding,

"Oh yeah? What do you call this?"

"Oh so what? It's got 1/4 cup of gin in it, big deal! It's not like I drink it every day!" He argued,

"Well maybe you don't drink Fairies Brew every day but you drink Pina Coladas like no tomorrow and don't you try to tell me that it's the virgin kind because it's not!"

"But, Pina Coladas are delicious!" The girl defended.

"Uh, what's your name anyway?" Tatl asked.

"Karina." The girl answered.

"Listen Karina, how old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"Well, then you've only had _virgin_ Pina Coladas which _are_ delicious, the kind he drinks are so potent with alcohol that they taste and smell like chemicals!" Tatl made a face and plugged her nose to emphasize how bad tasting and smelling they were.

"Yuck, that sounds awful." Karina said, making a disgusted face.

"Hey, being a fairy is no bed of roses, you have your ups and your downs. And being as the fairy population is dying, I've been having a whole lot of downs lately..."

"And this is an excuse for your drinking problem?" Tatl inquired.

"Well, no but I've always been a drunkard and it never bothered you before."

"Well if you think you're going to charm a future countess from Castle Town, I don't think she's going to take kindly to your drinking problem." Karina shook her head.

"Perhaps then, I should lay off my 'drinky-drinky's for a while." He smiled up at his newfound friend, then turned back to Tatl. "Tatl, where did you go after the show? You freaked me out, I looked back from the stage and you were gone!" Tatl palmed her forehead,

"My gosh Tael, you can't fend for yourself for a measly fourty minutes?"

"Hey! I can too! I was just worried you know, with all of the fairies disappearing and everything. Anyway, where _did_ you go?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

"I would, that's kind of why I asked."

"I just want to say Tael that you were so **WRONG**!"

"Uh, what? Wrong about what?"

"I saw him! I saw him! Link's still alive! Link's still alive!" She chanted, "In your face brother!"

"Link? Oh, no not this again, please don't do this Tatl, it's too painful! you do this every time we go to the carnival! Last time I nearly ripped your wings trying to get you off of the last guy!"

Last time, there was a little boy dressed like the hero of time, she'd clung to him like he was her lifeline. '_No, it's really him this time, it's him, it's him!'_ She'd protested, breaking into tears when the little boy mercilessly pried her off of his arm and flung her away.

"Maybe I was overreacting last time, but this time it really _is_ him Tael! I promise with all of my heart! I double-checked to make sure and everyone was calling him by name and everything! Apparently he just rescued the current Princess Zelda from Zant of the Twili and Ganondorf!" Tatl exclaimed excitedly.

"Wait a second, did you say Link?" Karina asked. "Do you mean Master Link of Ordona Province?" Tatl fluttered up next to Karina, landing on her shoulder.

"I think so, do you know him?" Tatl asked. Karina shook her head,

"No, I've never met the man though I have heard that he's quite a catch! I've heard that he is very handsome, almost like a dream..." she swooned.

"Yes, yes we all know what a great guy he is," Tael said, a little peeved that she would talk about something like that in _his_ presence, "But are you really telling the truth, or are you just saying this to indulge Tatl? Because if it's the latter you're only causing more problems for me." Tael warned her. Karina pouted, suddenly hurt,

"Of course I am telling the truth, why would I lie about the hero who saved Hyrule?"

"'hero who saved Hyrule'?" Tael repeated, a little astonished.

"See!? I told you Tael! It's really him!" Tatl squealed excitely like a crazed fangirl who had just chugged an energy drink. Tael grabbed ahold of her shoulders, looking her in the eye,

"Okay Tatl calm down, are you sure that this wasn't a dream? And that this Link is still the same person?"l

"Of course I'm sure! I didn't fall asleep Tael!" She said, teetering on unsteady legs as drowsyness overcame her.

"You didn't but you're about to, it seems you've over-exhorted yourself with this little tale of yours, why don't you lie down and close your eyes while I escort Karina back to the Inn, it's already three in the morning." Karina was giving Tael the cold shoulder for accusing her of lying, but he didn't seem to pay much mind. It may have been insensitive of him, but Karina _was_ going back to Hyrule in the morning, so it wasn't like he'd have much to do with her anyway...

Tatl closed her eyes in tired frustration, trying to hold the tears back as she held a hand to her throbbing forehead. She needed sleep, she hadn't had a decent night of sleep since they'd returned to Termina, her worry and distress over what happened to the other fairies had kept her awake at night and she was deathly afraid that she'd be joining their ranks. Who knows, maybe she had made him up, maybe her headache was making her delusional, she couldn't stand it, she had to know if she had really seen him.

"Tael!" Tatl called before they left, "Go into the north district of Clocktown and see for yourself, I wasn't making him up, I know I wasn't." She sobbed, tears forming in her eyes as sleep overcame her tired body.

* * *

Hey guys! Sorry that it took so long to post! I've been a little addicted to YouTube lately, I found these really funny Resident Evil Musicals by ShadowLeggy! This chapter was a lot of fairy complaining courtesy of TatlTael and I promise I won't have so much next time! I apologize for the lack of action and romance but I promise you there will be more in the next! As of now, Zelda, like Resident Evil is being put on hold. D: If you're curious as to why I'm torturing you like this, I'll tell you, I would first like to introduce everything first and then come back and spend a lot more time on them. Next I am posting the starting chapters for Final Fantasy X and I fervently hope that you'll enjoy them as much or possibly more than this chapter! Til next time readers, I bid you adieu! Read and review por favor! It is much appreciated when you do! X3


	6. The Figment of My Dreaming Mind

Hiya everybody! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been kind of stumped with all of the end of the year senior projects my teachers have been giving me (like 5 projects all due at once, including a detailed illustration of oneself plus a full 2-4 pages explaining what you are expressing) plus cramming for finals that decide if I even graduate high school! Well, anyway, enough about my life, Final Fantasy X fans your day has come! I am finally posting the first FFX chapter! (RE fans rev up chainsaws, Zelda fans glare, stop dancing their jig and unsheathe master sword replicas) Okay, well some of you are probably not too happy with me right now, or you are dusting off that Blitzball you've been keeping in the closet and sitting down for a good read. Well either way I'm going on with FFX. However, I may run into problems writing the second starting chapter and as of now I sort of have writer's block about it and I was wondering if you would care or not if we just moved on to Kingdom Hearts after this chapter? If anyone is willing to give me any ideas though, I would praise you and I might consider some of them and try to write them into my next chapter. Oh yes, and if anyone does want to give me ideas, they must do it before June 16, 2009, because if I don't get any ideas soon, I'm probably not going to end up posting for a while... But for now, enjoy "The Figment of My Dreaming Mind".

Disclaimer: Only in my dreams could I ever hope to own it...

Chapter 5

The Figment of My Dreaming Mind

"_**If a little dreaming is dangerous, then the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, dream all the time!"**_

_**-Anonymous-**_

The sensation of floating through water is perhaps an equal sensation to the floating one does in dreams. As Tidus floated through the hazardous ocean rapids, he awoke relatively calmly, as an unborn babe does in their mother's womb. He stared up at the bright, moving surface of reds and purples and oranges and yellows. His reverie was lost as the colorful surface was broken by a dark form who'd spotted him in the water. His eyelids drooped as he watched the shadow swim closer. Before the form could reach him his eyes closed, his lungs burning from the lack of oxygen as his body gave up the chore of breathing.

Lightheadedness overcame Tidus as he choked up the last of the seawater and opened his eyes. His head hurt like he had gotten hit in the head with a speedboat and he held his forehead painfully, starting to realize he had been brought to a beach. There was a woman sitting beside him in a bright red swimsuit, probably the lifeguard.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, I guess, my head hurts, but other than that I'm fine." He answered, the lifeguard sighed with relief,

"Well that's good, it would be pretty bad if you had to sit out at your next match with the Duggles."

"Yeah, I guess-- hey wait a minute! How do you know about the Duggles!?" She looked at him like he was a 'few spheres short of a garment grid' as the old Spiran saying goes...

"Um, how could I _not_ know them? They _are_ second place next to the Abes in major league Blitzball."

"No way," he laughed to himself, then looked at her, "I'm in Zanarkand!" he shouted gleefully. She looked at him, utterly confused.

"Yeah...you _live_ in Zanarkand and you're a big Blitzball star here, how could you not know where you are?" He looked up at the sky in thought, wondering if he should tell her about Spira... but now that he thought about it, Spira seemed like it had been nothing but a dream, but yet it had seemed so real! He just didn't know what to make of it. He decided he shouldn't tell her, she would think he was nuts.

"Hey, you saved me right?" She nodded. "What's your name?" He asked.

"Kaylie, you're Tidus right?" He nodded.

"Yeah, that's right. You know what Kaylie, I think I should gift you with a front-row seat to my next game, I mean, if you're up to it." She laughed,

"Yeah, sure I'm totally up to it!"

"Great!" He nodded, "meet me in the Abes' training pool tomorrow morning and I'll get you a ticket." He looked around nervously, realizing that there were beach-goers who were beginning to recognize him.

"Hey look everybody! It's the star player of the Abes, Tidus!!!" One girl screamed.

'_**uh oh, looks like it's time to leave...'**_ Tidus thought, gulping in fear and getting up as fast as he could. As soon as the girls charged, Tidus sprinted away, running over a few sandcastles along the way. The beach goers who'd made the castles were spitting hateful epithets at him, but he ignored them all. He looked behind him to find that it was the crowd of fans he dreaded the most, the crying, screaming stalker girls who can't find anyone to pay attention to them because they are either too annoying, awkward, or altogether too much of a misfit to understand. This sight made his body gain speed, even though some of these girls were rather attractive-the results of obsessively trying to make themselves look good-all they wanted to talk about was how great he was and they just weren't worth his time.

_**'And to think...I used to like running for my life from hot girls! But after that pilgrimage...it really sucks the root!'**_ When he'd finally lost the fan girls after a long strenuous jog down the Zanarkand streets (for the girls at least...), he heard voices calling to him,

"Hey Tidus!" He cringed, expecting more adoring fans, but it was only his teammates, waving to him from across the way. They all had on their Blitzball gear as if they'd just come from practice. The head of the team-next to Tidus-Spike approached him first. The boy was a year older than Tidus with spiked blonde hair and tinted water goggles. The reason he wasn't captain was because Tidus was the better player and the son of Jecht, possibly the greatest player in Zanarkand's Blitzball history.

"Hey dude, where were you? We had to practice without you because you didn't show up! I mean, I know you're still bummed out about losing the game, but we really missed you at practice! The coach sucks at giving us instructions, his mind just isn't what it used to be, I mean, he was the one who taught your pops, am I right?" He chuckled. Spike had idolized Jecht ever since he was a kid and had dreamed of becoming a legendary Blitzball star. When he'd first met Tidus, he was more than a little jealous and angry with him because Tidus had always hated his father, yet he was walking in his footsteps to become what his father once was. But eventually, he learned to accept the fact and as a result became Tidus's friend and sub-captain and usually ran things when Tidus was unable to play.

"Sorry guys, uh...I was practicing—by myself off the coast. I almost drowned, but it's okay because I was saved by a really hot lifeguard! So, how was your guy's day?" He laughed nervously, trying to play it cool. Another of his teammates, Destiny, walked over to listen to their conversation, she was shorter than Tidus and had light brown hair with blonde streaks. She wore a pair of tinted goggles around her neck and wore the straps of her suspenders down around her knees. The girls' uniform was slightly different with shorter shorts that came up above the thighs. She wore her yellow jacket open with a white waterproof mid-drift shirt underneath. The girls were required to wear high-top sneakers that laced up to the knee.

"You were practicing in the middle of the ocean!? You idiot! Isn't that how your father died? Pfft, I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree..." She commented snidely. Spike shook his head at Destiny, warning her that she was swimming through dangerous waters. Destiny was a bit of a tomboy and lived to play blitzball. Spike was an old childhood friend, he was a few years older than her and had gotten her involved in the sport when he told her he didn't have time to play her little girl games and ditched her for his blitzball buddies. Jealous of his friends, she joined a blitzball team too and eventually beat him and his friends in the little league championship tournament. After that, they were as thick as thieves. She and Spike eventually joined the Abes where they met Tidus with whom Destiny had never really gotten along with.

"Yeah, it is how my father died, thank you once again for the painful memories." He smiled, his eyes narrowing at her playfully. In truth, he never really meant anything he said to her, he just enjoyed sparring with her over nothing. Although this time he was more than just a little annoyed with his lady teammate.

"Well I guess we'll see you tomorrow at the game then." Spike said, trying to break up the senseless argument before it ensued.

"Wait, so there _is _a game tomorrow night...against who?" Tidus asked, Destiny rolled her eyes and shook her head at his stupidity.

"It's against the Duggles again, they have to beat us twice for them to be able to make it to the finals remember?" Spike reminded him, everybody knew that. Tidus had been on that pilgrimage so long that he'd forgotten all about blitzball, he didn't think he'd be playing with the Abes ever again, not after that Sin attack. His teammates were looking at him strangely,

"Hey man, are you okay? You seem kind of...out of it today..." Spike commented. Tidus shook his head as if shaking off Sin's toxin,

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just cheated death about an hour ago and I guess that I'm still kind of dazed, anyway, I'll see you guys at the game." Tidus excused himself, sprinting off in the direction of home before his teammates could say anything.

…..............................................................................................................................................................

A half an hour later, after battling tons of adoring fans and after trying to get used to the consistent flow of traffic that was non-existent in Spira, he opened the door of the house he thought he'd never see again. He looked around the large million-dollar floating boat house and sighed with depression and exhaustion.

The house had been empty for years ever since his mom died and the usual air of death and depression lingered throughout the house. He'd meant to sell the house and possibly move to a different part of Zanarkand, but he had been unable to do it, the house held for him too many memories of his parents. And now that he'd really gotten to know his father, he wasn't willing to sell off his father's memories to his ravenous, overzealous fans. Tidus made his way to his bedroom and collapsed onto his king-sized mattress, the whole bed moving as his fall had corrupted the flow of the water within. He was still unable to decide if his trip to Spira and Sin's attack were real or not. He realized that he couldn't really tell anyone; nobody would believe him. Well, he reasoned, if it was a dream why was he so exhausted and heartbroken? The last few minutes on the airship he'd had to make the most difficult decision of his life, but really he'd had no choice, the forces of nature were preventing him from being able to make the choice he'd wanted. He had lived alone ever since his mother died, sure he'd had friends and girls over but nobody had actually _lived _with him since then. In fact, he would rather be back in Spira right now, protecting Yuna from fiends, yet ironically, while he was there, all he'd wanted to do was go home. He regretted that decision now, what was the point of this existence without Yuna in it? It was meaningless. All he'd ever wanted was back in Spira, presuming him dead. He wanted to cry and for once in his life he agreed with his old man's conclusions about him, he was a crybaby. Tidus flopped back upon his bed, staring up at the ceiling as sleep slowly overcame him and a pair of blue and green bi-colored eyes melted into his dreams.

…..............................................................................................................................................................

_**The bright lights of Zanarkand blinded him as Tidus walked through the large empty streets that he knew to be bustling with hundreds and thousands of people. A woman walked beside him, she wore her long, chestnut-brown hair back in a ponytail. The suit she wore was colored with lavender and dark violet and gave her already bronzed skin a flushed appearance. She smiled at him. The smile was radiant indeed, but through Tidus's eyes, it would never be as radiant as Yuna's.**_

"_**Hello." she greeted, "Is it always this quiet here?" she asked, her voice echoing as if they were in a large empty canyon.**_

"_**No, it's never this quiet." He answered, wondering whom the woman was but just didn't see a reason to ask for her name, "Maybe in an alternate reality." He mused aloud.**_

"_**Will you tell me about it?" The woman asked.**_

"_**What?" **_

"_**Spira, what is it like? Your mind whispers names over and over, surely you know people there."**_

"_**Oh, yeah sure. Well...Spira is nothing like Zanarkand except for the fact that they both have blitzball. They have something called...Sin." He paused for a moment, memories of sorrow and frustration rushing back to him, memories he'd buried deep, memories he hadn't been able to tell anyone about.**_

"_**I can see the memory of it pains you, what is Sin?" She pressed gently, waiting patiently for his answer.**_

"_**Well it's nothing they have to worry about anymore, Yuna got rid of it for good." Tidus said, pumping his fist in the air victoriously. The woman raised a questioning brow,**_

"_**Yuna...I've heard that name constantly in your thoughts...she is dear to you." He nodded,**_

"_**I think I'm in love with her." The woman's eyes became desperate,**_

"_**Are you trapped here too?" He looked at her, not sure what she meant,**_

"_**Uh, what?" She shook her head,**_

"_**My body, it was stolen from me, I am trapped in this dream world until I get it back,** _**if**_** I ever get it back. Listen, if you ever see me on the surface, don't trust me, don't believe anything I tell you." He nodded,**_

"_**Alright, but I don't even know you."**_

"_**I have something to tell you before you wake up, the man who stole my life, I heard him speak of a portal opening on New Year's eve, if you can find it, it should lead you to Yuna." The dream world began to waver as he started to regain consciousness again.**_

"_**Where would I find it!?" **_

"_**Follow danger wherever it lurks, evil loves to corrupt the innocent."**_

…_**.............................................................................................................................................................**_

**2 Years Later...**

The midday sun shone through Tidus's window and awakened him from his deep sleep. He yawned and stretched, he'd dreamed about the woman in purple again. He'd had the dream every night for the past 2 years and every dream ended with the same words about the portal on New Year's eve. Well, he'd looked and looked, but still no portal and no fiends _ever_ scorned the sidewalks of Zanarkand, so there was no danger to follow. He and the woman held different conversations every night, but all of them ended with her reminding him of the portal. He was rather fed up with the dreams and had even drank coffee and energy drinks non-stop for nearly a week to keep himself awake so he wouldn't have to dream it. Unfortunately, he had to sleep eventually and passed out for nearly two days in which the woman scolded him for leaving her alone for so long and then told him about her life and where she came from. Apparently, she was orphaned and she had gone from a life of thievery to train to be a policewoman. However, the group she worked for was involved in some big conspiracy that turned everyone in town into zombies. Well, Tidus hadn't believed any of this, in fact he thought of her as his overactive conscience, a figment of his imagination. Zombies? Come on, yes they were real, but from his experiences they didn't eat human flesh to survive. Because of the dreams and the hopelessness of his meaningless existence, he'd developed a black humor and blitzball just wasn't as important as it used to be. His teammates were avoiding him and he'd gotten into a huge dispute with Spike after he didn't even _try_ to win the game.

"_You know what, why don't you just leave it to the people who __**want**__ to play and go warm the bench! Or better yet why don't you just join the Duggles, at least then they'd be easier to defeat!"_ Spike hadn't spoken to him for nearly a month after that game and Tidus had seriously _considered_ joining the Duggles.

The Duggles from Zanarkand South came from the rough side of town and were disliked by any fans of the Abes because of their disturbing black humor and sadistic behavior. Because of his depressive mood, the Zanarkand Abes had lost more games this season than all of their seasons combined. Tidus had noticed that his club of fangirls had shortened considerably, which was a large relief, but still a little concerning. They'd written him letters asking why he was acting like this and that they'd liked him better when he was hyped up and enthusiastic about the game. They were the only ones he'd actually confided in about Spira and the fact that he didn't really have it in him to play anymore. Of course, most of them leaked his info on Spira to the press and practically all of Zanarkand thought he was a total nutcase. On top of that, the team was losing money because nobody wanted to come see them play. Their coach was beginning to give up on them.

Tidus got up and went to his kitchen for breakfast. There on the counter was a copy of "Zanarkand Today" with embarrassing photos of him pasted all over the cover, the main headline said,

"**IS THIS THE END FOR THE ZANARKAND ABES?"**

There were pictures of him fumbling the ball, cussing at the referee, and supposedly of him gaining weight and in the corner it read,

"**STAR PLAYER'S WACKED OUT DREAM LEADS TO TEAM'S DOWNFALL; FANS BELIEVE HE HAS DEVELOPED A DRUG ADDICTION"** He sighed, tonight there was another game. Once again he was going to be in the public eye, making a fool out of himself. After the game, he planned to sneak out of the after party to search for the portal, it had to be here this time, there had been a lot of fiend sightings lately, which was unusual because Zanarkand _never_ had fiends unless something disastrous was about to happen. It was almost like a bad omen.

Seconds later he heard his bathroom door creak open. He turned around to see what it was, only to come face to face with Butch, star player of the Duggles.

"Butch? What the hell are you doing in my house!?" The man chuckled, the scar on his lip making his smile seem more cruel. He held a baseball bat in his hands and Tidus instinctively knew what was coming. He opened one of his kitchen drawers and pulled out a butcher knife, holding it in a defensive stance like he would a sword.

"You think you're so tough because some ancient swordsman from "Spira" taught you some fencing moves? Heh, heh, okay "guardian", show me some moves!" Tidus took a step back, not wanting to hurt the wayward blitzball star.

"Hey look, what's this all about? I always knew you weren't right in the head Butch, but breaking into someone's house and challenging them because of something you read in the fan magazines? Pfft, and to think, I used to hold an ounce of respect for you..." Tidus shook his head in disgust. Butch chuckled again,

"It's alright, I wouldn't want to fight me neither." He lowered the baseball bat. Tidus felt a harsh pain shoot through his head as he was attacked from behind and tumbled to the ground, dropping the butcher knife in the process, the blade slicing through his side as he landed on it. The sight of blood pouring from his side made him dizzy the loss of blood caused his eyelids to droop. The last thing he saw was the evil smiles of Butch and his second player and then he was finally unable to open his eyes as his world turned black.

…............................................................................................................................................................

The streets of Zanarkand were crowded with people for the New Year's eve Blitzball event; fireworks crowded the sky until airships were unable to fly. Music could be heard on every street corner and in every cafe as well as a radio report on how the Blitzball tournament was progressing. A woman with long flowing blonde hair flew down the street on a machina-bike trying her hardest not to hit anybody. Her target should be at the Blitzball tournament, like the old man had mentioned. the man who'd hired her claimed he was an ancient guardian from some world called Spira and a prisoner of the underworld. He told her he needed someone who wouldn't ask questions and was used to this sort of thing. How he'd found her, she may never know. Nevertheless, she cursed the old man and his mission when the roadway was blocked off to make way for the parade. Hundreds of people gathered at the roadblocks to watch the parade and for the moment she was utterly out of ideas.

..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Spike checked his watch for the fifth time, grumbling angrily as he wondered where Tidus was and whether or not he'd been delayed by the parade. But he realized he couldn't have been because practically all of Zanarkand knew who he was and would have let him pass right through the parade without fault. Spike was fed up with Tidus's behavior, late for every game, making cruel, sarcastic jokes, and what was up with that weird dream that he told his fans about? Spike had gotten to thinking, maybe the press was right, maybe he _was_ suffering from a drug addiction... Even though Tidus seemed to be getting on his nerves a lot lately, Spike still held a lot of worry and concern for his friend and he hoped that whatever hardships he was dealingwith would clear up soon so that they could get back to work. Destiny tapped her foot impatiently, crossing her arms and wanting to slug Tidus for causing them t6o delay their match with the Duggles. But she was also angry at him for other things, like causing Spike so much stress. She hated seeing Spike so out of wack and it was unnerving to the rest of the players as well. Coincidently, the Duggles had also failed to show up for their opening match, giving it to the teams from Zanarkand East and West. Destiny suggested that they should just play the game without Tidus, if he couldn't show up on time, he'd have to miss all of the action. He _was_ the one responsible for their losing streak... But somehow, she knew Spike would never agree to that, he was a pretty fair guy, she knew he wouldn't play until every one of his teammates were present or at least until he knew where they were and what they were doing that seemed to be more important than playing Blitzball. She sighed, knowing that they were going to have to wait for the "Star Loser"'s arrival.

......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Tidus opened his eyes hours later, his side and head throbbing with tremendous intensity. One of his eyes were swollen shut and by the look of it, he was no longer in his own home. He tried to move but couldn't and wouldn't be able to even if he weren't tied down. He was strapped to a wall and held down by worn leather straps that cut into his flesh and rubbed his skin raw. Sweat beaded on his forehead and shivers ran down his body, concluding that he had a fever. His side was clumsily patched with a makeshift bandage that was now soaked with his blood. He judged by the metallic stench of it that it was probably still bleeding. Wherever he was located, it seemed like a toolshed of some sort with windows that confirmed he was in Zanarkand South, the Duggles' territory. He had no idea why the Duggles would do this to him, the Abes had lost almost every game this season because of him...it didn't make any sense. He noticed the various tools and instruments of destruction lying around,

_**'Knives, scalpels, hammers, needles, power saws...' **_he shivered, out of fear this time, **_'a chainsaw...'_** he gulped. Moments later the heavy double doors clanged open to reveal none other than the Duggles themselves.

"Hey chump, you're awake!" Butch smirked.

"Yeah I'm awake! C'mon guys, stop playing around! I-I've got a game to play!" Butch shook his head,

"You see, every time it seems like you've had a bad season, you always beat us right at the end of the tournament, causing us extreme humiliation and shame for the fact that we've lost to a team of losers." Butch stopped talking, thinking Tidus would take the hint.

"So...you're just going to leave me here until the game is over?" He asked hopefully.

"Well, we thought about that, but if we let you go, you wouldn't learn your lesson, would you?" He said, casually walking over to lift the rusty sledgehammer. Tidus started laughing nervously,

"C'mon guys, I know that we haven't really hit it off as well as we should have, but do you really have to torture me?" Butch was pensive for a moment,

"I don't really know if **torture** is the right word, it's more like discipline." The rest of them laughed as Tidus's eyes went wide and the urge to fight or fly welled up inside him, causing him to struggle against his restraints.

"Hey lemme go! Help! Somebody, anybody help!" The Duggles laughed at his struggling form and his pathetic calls for help, each of them were beginning to relish the moment when their victory would taste so sweet.

...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Realizing that the parade barricades would be of little hindrance to her machinabike, the woman floored the throttle and jumped the colorful floats to the other side of the street, barely missing the barricades on the other side as she skidded to a stop. She'd already talked to her target's team, the Zanarkand Abes and apparently he was nowhere to be found. They were surprised that someone like her would be looking for him and they were puzzled at her choice of attire, a revealing black corset paired with tight leather pants and knee-high stiletto boots. The team's leader, Spike had asked if she was his girlfriend, a question which she reluctantly said 'yes' to for the sake of her mission. He asked her if she would help him with whatever problems he was facing so that he would get refocused on Blitzball. She nodded her head and Spike advised her to try and find the other team, the Duggles from Zanarkand South. It seemed that Spike had a hunch that the Duggles would know the wherabouts of their star player. As she was speeding down the crowded streetways of Zanarkand South with only a single address, and the last lead to where her target would be, she started to wonder if the enemy had gotten to him first.

........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Cut, bruised and bloody, Tidus gave up the nuisance of screaming, knowing that no one would heed him anyway. Butch laughed as he took note of Tidus's painful expression, raising the sledgehammer over his head as he shouted,

"Say goodnight chump!" Tidus waited for the pain to come, closed his eyes and waited to hear a wet, bloody thump against his skull, but instead he heard the slamming of the heavy metal doors clanging open before they slammed into the wall. Butch lowered the hammer, suddenly annoyed at the intrusion,

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Butch chuckled, suddenly interested.

"Hey, who invited the chick!?" One of them yelled. Tidus opened the eye that wasn't swollen shut and found a volumptuous blonde bombshell in black leather and stiletto boots. A bunch of hoots and catcalls filled the room, but they earned no reaction from the pensive beauty.

"Here to enjoy the show sweetheart?" Butch asked.

"Actually," She started, removing her sunglasses, "I'm here to ruin your little show." She smiled vengefully, her blue eyes sparkling as if she had already foreseen her victory. Some of them seemed frightened by her expression and they backed away cautiously. Butch smirked, undaunted by the woman's expression as he was currently over-flowing with liquid courage. Resting the giant sledgehammer in the crook of his shoulder he scoffed,

"Humph, what are _you_ gonna do? You really think that _you_ a _woman_, can take all of us?" He laughed, thinking her announcement was absurd. His inquisition boosted the players' courage and they realized that she was only a woman and that she couldn't possibly do anything to harm them. The players crowded around her with baseball bats and switchknives, gaining an evil gleam in their eyes when they thought of what they wanted to do with her. She looked into their evil faces and laughed,

"You know, you should never underestimate the power of a woman, because ultimately, it will be your downfall." She warned him, making him and the other players break out into a fit of wild laughter. While they were distracted, she made a roundhouse kick to keep them at bay as her hands filled with bouts of electricity and she savagely electrocuted Butch with her strange power. Tidus decided that this woman was definitely on his side as he watched Butch collapse on the floor into an electric seizure. As he saw the others get back up, ready to stab her in the back, he shouted,

"Hey! Look out! Behind you!" The woman turned around just as they were about to charge her and leapt, grabbing onto the pipe above her and swinging towards them, effectively knocking them down with a forceful kick to the chest. She grabbed the twin handguns from the holsters on her thighs, looking over the black barrels menacingly as she cocked them, the clicking of the guns setting their nerves on edge. Deciding that they'd had enough, the Duggles ran past her, practically shoving her out of the way as they burst out of the room, screaming and running for their lives. Butch was lying paralyzed on the ground, his body still twitching with the aftershocks of the woman's electric-shock. Tidus thanked the heavens, realizing that if she hadn't of shown up sooner, he would've probably been lying in a pool of his own blood right now.

The woman put her handguns back into their holsters and brushed herself off as if she were used to this sort of thing. She flipped her hip-length mane of golden blonde hair then shook her head as she surveyed the damage done to him. She walked over to loosen his restraints, ripping them off with her inhuman strength. Tidus was more than a little bewildered with what he'd seen, it was the reason he'd decided not to speak. She made note of his poorly bandaged wound, the sweat pouring down his face, his black and blue eye and his swollen, bloody lip and shook her head again, frowning. They had beaten up her target pretty badly; the old man wasn't going to be very happy. She sighed, resting her hands on her hips,

"Are you okay?" She asked, something she'd never really had to ask anyone before. He raised an eyebrow as he tried to gain his balance, bleeding from the corner of his mouth he inquired,

"Does it look like I'm okay?" She crossed her arms, already annoyed with him,

"You're welcome." He shook his head apologetically,

"I'm sorry, it's okay, I'm all right. Thanks, I wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for you." He apologized, bowing his head in shame, "Anyway, why did you rescue me?" She shrugged as if it was nothing,

"I had to, it's my job. My name's Trish, I came here because someone asked me to find you and bring you to him, supposedly you are one of the keys to preventing the prophecy of the twelve maidens." He looked at her blankly, he had no idea what she was talking about.

"Uh huh, um prophecy?" he asked, confused. She closed her eyes and sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance, somehow knowing she would have to explain it sooner or later. Her cellphone vibrated in her pocket, she picked it up to realize that it was the alarm she'd set for the portal. It was a quarter till midnight, they had to go before the portal closed.

"First of all, we have to leave, now." she said, dragging him outside to her machinabike. "Get on!" She shouted, reving up the engine and tossing him a helmet. He nodded, putting the helmet on and hopping on behind her, reluctantly putting his arms around her volumptuous form. The wheels of the vehicle squealed as they pulled out onto the streets of Zanarkand, traveling at 80 mph and amazingly evading everyone and everything they came across. Tidus tried not to cry out as they nearly hit the parade-goers, realizing something, the portal! It was real! the girl in his dreams hadn't been talking nonsense after all! Trish was taking him to a portal wasn't she? So that must mean that it was the portal the girl in his dreams talked about. Supposedly, according to the girl, this portal would lead him to Yuna. He couldn't believe it, he'd waited for this moment for so long, he didn't think it would ever come. He looked down at himself, feeling the pain in his side once more, he hoped that Yuna wouldn't have to see him like this, he looked horrible, in fact he reminded himself of the zombies that girl in his dreams always seemed to be talking about. When they finally reached the edge of the city at 11:55, Tidus asked,

"So, uh what exactly does this portal go to?" He tugged the helmet off of his head, setting it on the seat of her machinabike. Trish was a little busy at the moment and she ignored his question, opening her arms wide as if she were summoning the portal. A blinding white light appeared in the black waters off the coast of his hometown, the water crashing brutally against the shore as if disturbed by the portal's appearance. Trish held out her hand to him as the billowing wind from the frigid sea arranged her hair into wild disarray.

"Come on!" She shouted, offering her hand. He took it, knowing he wouldn't want to be trapped in Zanarkand for the rest of his life. Then they dived, into the sea and towards the blinding white light.

* * *

Wow, that seemed like such a long chapter! I think I've read it too many times! I have a major headache D;. I hope you guys liked it and here's a treat for you Resident Evil fans, see if you can guess who the girl in Tidus's dreams is! I'll even make it into a contest, if you win I will see if I can send you something cool! Then you won't have to cut my head off (laughs nervously). 'Till next time readers! (contest ends when I post the second chapter of Kingdom Hearts!) And if anyone wants to send me ideas for my second FFX chapter I would advise you to do it soon! Tootles! =D


	7. Detour

Hey guys! Sorry for not updating sooner, but I was kind of in the middle of moving and trying to get into a college. And believe me I tried to get back to writing but between hauling my stuff back and forth between two different states and having to unpack my things at my new house, take my written driver's test for a fourth time so I could get an ID, and finding out where everything is, I haven't really had the time! Although I had always thought about writing it over the past few months, so I had not abandoned this story by any means. In fact, it was mostly the fact that I was writing about characters that I didn't really like all that much that made me not want to write it!

**Tidus:** **Oh, but you had time to browse other stories on this website?**

**Jobro-Fangirl: *bitch slaps***

**Tidus: Yeouch!**

**Jobro-fangirl: Shut up! Or I'll make your stay in the underworld even more unpleasant than it already is! (Dammit! that muscle head made me spoil the plot!) I might even decide to delay the part where you meet up with Yuna... hee hee! (I'm such a sadist...)**

**Tidus: *Drops down on knees* NOOOOO!!!!!**

Okay, enough of this nonsense! The show must go on! And my contest from last chapter stands until I post the second Kingdom Hearts chapter (FYI this isn't Kingdom Hearts yet!) So if you haven't given my contest a try, now's your chance! And if you don't know anything about Final Fantasy X or X-2 I would suggest Wikipedia. If you don't know this game and you decide to stubbornly disregard my advice, I'm going to punch your nobody in the face! (sorry but I don't like getting reviews where I find out that no one knows the plot!)

**Disclaimer:**** If I owned any of it, I would make Tidus change his clothes, I mean, he looks like he got dressed in a closet!**

**Tidus: Hey!**

**Jobro-Fangirl: Hey is for horses and you are lucky I don't own you.  
**

**Chapter 6**

**Detour **

_**"It's not that you're dreaming. You are a dream. Maybe you are the dream that will end our dreaming at last."**_

_**-The Fayth; Final Fantasy X-  
**_

The bright light of the portal blinded him as Tidus swam to the other side, his mind focused on one thing and one thing only...Yuna. He wondered, would she recognize him? Would he know it was her? Would she still be the same person he fell in love with? His body burned as he crossed over into the other realm and he felt as if he were flying into the sun because of the sudden scorching heat. He tried to swim back the way he had come, suddenly fearful of what would happen, but his body felt heavy and it became difficult to move as an extreme lightheadedness overcame him once again and he immediately passed into his dream world, letting the sweet serenity of sleep consume him.

.............................................................................................................................................................................

_What was once blurry and indescernable had come into focus and became clear as he entered the world of dreams once more. He returned to an empty Zanarkand, completely devoid of life, but he would never understandwhy everything was always centered around the same place. Perhaps it had something to do with the Fayth and the fact that he had only been a dream. He looked around for the girl he'd spoken to many times before and wondered if she was a dream of the Fayth too. He wondered, maybe the Fayth was holding him from the portal. But thinking more reasonably, he realized that he probably just passed out from exhaustion. Not long after searching for the girl, he found her, swinging her legs over one of the bridge railings to idly pass the time. Time which for her, he guessed, was perhaps equal to that of an eternity, especially in that boring place. Sadly, not even he would want to get trapped in his own dream world forever. He realized that she hadn't noticed him and thought about sneaking up on her and scaring her, but then thought better of it, she had told him she was a cop after all, who knows how she'd react...so, he decided just to make himself known. _

_"Hey!" He called, grabbing her attention right away with a loud echo. For all he knew, scaring her could have resulted in a horrifying tumble off of the bridge. She looked back to see him and smiled, a friendly sort of smile, it was the happiest that he'd ever seen on her face._

_"Hey you came back this time!" she laughed, patting the spot next to her for him to sit down. He did as she instructed. _

_"what do you mean 'this time'? I always come back!" Tidus laughed._

_"Yeah, only because your bodily functions force you to comply!" she shouted, giggling._

_"Yeah, whatever, I know that it is a little late to ask this but, what's your name anyway?" She looked at him and laughed, Tidus could tell that this one was forced, sadness painted her eyes a different color._

_"I'm sorry but I just... I can't remember." she said, remorse causing her facial features to droop. She studied the blurry abyss below the bridge, sadly shaking her head, "I've been away for so long that I can barely remember who I am anymore." Tidus tilted his head to the side, recalling all of the stories she used to tell him about her life._

_"But, what about all of those stories? The ones about you fighting off hordes of zombies... were those real or not?" He inquired. Her eyes widened and she shook her head,_

_"Oh, no I promise those were real, I wouldn't lie about my life, not to anyone. I have bits and pieces of memories in my head about friends whose faces I can't remember, names I can't recall and in only 2 years time I managed to forget nearly everything about them." she hung her head in disappointment._

_"Well, why don't you just go back?" Tidus suggested. She shook her head hurriedly, an expression of fear borne on her face._

_"I can't go back, that person's mind is twisted... evil, if that demon ever found me, she would destroy the last of my humanity, I might not ever go back, I'll be stuck in this dream world for all eternity!" She wailed. Tidus looked at her arching a brow,_

_"Demon?" The girl nodded,_

_"Yes, the man who kidnapped me had a mutual friendship with devil worshippers and I was their first subject for experimentation..."_

_"Experimentation? For what?"_

_"A ritual for demon possession. They believed that if I was possessed by a demon then I would become a better person, someone with obedience, someone they could control."_

_"Wait a minute! That's why you refuse to leave? You're posessed by a demon?" she nodded._

_"Yes." Tidus shook his head, wishing there was something he could do to help._

_"But wait, if you're in a dream world, can't you just make something up to force the demon out!?" She shook her head,_

_"Even my subconscious knows that a human is no match for a full-fledged demon, believe me, I've already tried to do something about it." He growled in frustration, unwilling to accept it,_

_"But, that's just not right!"_

_"It's okay, I've learned to accept it, just forget about it." She concluded, moving on, "Anyway, on a lighter note, I see you found the portal!" Tidus nodded, complying to her wish not to talk about her issues anymore._

_"Yeah, but it took me two years to find it, no thanks to you!" He teased._

_"Yeah, sorry about that... my kidnapper didn't exactly specify, you know..." He waved off her apology._

_"It's okay, I'm just happy to make it out in one piece is all... maybe. I'm not sure, I haven't exactly woken up yet." The girl turned to him, a heartfelt smile on her face,_

_"I hope you find what you're looking for." Tidus gave her one last glance as his vision became blurry and everything faded away until he was engulfed in the darkness between awake and dreaming. _

_..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................._

"Hey! Hey blondie wake up!" a voice echoed from beyond the dark haze. The sound caused Tidus to open his eyes or at least try to, one of his eyes was swollen shut.

"Finally," Trish sighed, "Geez, you sleep like a rock, I've been shaking you for almost fourty minutes!" Tidus got up slowly, holding his throbbing forehead.

"Sorry about that." He groaned, jumping in shock as Trish was suddenly at his side, touching his swollen eye.

"You're lucky I wasn't tempted to _shock_ you awake..." Tidus backed up as her touch sent waves of stinging fire through his body,

"Yeouch! Hey back away from the eye!" He warned, holding his hand over it as he tried to keep it away from her. Trish reached into the top of her stiletto boot and pulled out a switch-knife.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Tidus inquired fearfully. Trish sighed grumpily,

"Look, it will help with the swelling and you'll be able to see again, now get over here!" He shook his head, unwilling to comply,

"Hey wait a second, how is cutting me open gonna help with the swelling?" Frustrated, Trish gave up the argument and moving with lightning speed, pried his hand from his eye and cut open the swelling mass underneath, letting the puss and blood drain from it. Tidus blinked painfully and within seconds, Tidus was able to open both eyes, but the painful stinging, unfortunately didn't go away.

"Thanks for your help, but you could've just used a potion or a remedy you know." Trish shrugged,

"Well, I've only got one and I snagged it from the guy who did this to you." She tossed it to him, he caught it easily. Trish would never know how grateful he was at that moment. Eagerly opening the glass bottle, he drank the sweet, tangy confection in one gulp, expecting something to happen and was confused when nothing did. He looked down at the empty glass bottle, both puzzled and frustrated.

"Hmm, that's weird, it's not expired..." He turned to ask Trish for advice, "Hey Trish, why isn't anything happening?" She shrugged,

"I don't know, I guess you're just screwed." Tidus mumbled something under his breath about his bad luck and stood up, noticing his surroundings for the first time. The place where they stood was dark and gloomy, filled with the creepy resonance of the dead. A puddle of some slimy green substance pooled beneath his feet. To his right there was a lake of that same green slime and beyond that, a menacing-looking structure decorated with skulls. To his left there was a stairwell that seemed like it lead up to the light, but he assumed that they weren't going to go that way. He looked back at Trish, immensely confused and disappointed,

"This...isn't Spira." he simply muttered.

"I know." She replied.

"What? You know? Then what are we doing here?" He exclaimed, wanting to leave as soon as possible, he thought that he could literally hear the moans of the dead.

"We are here because the man who hired me to abduct you is here." Tidus's eyes went wide,

"Whoa, what!? Wait a second, who is this guy? And what exactly does he have to do with me?" Tidus demanded, and here he thought that Trish was helping him.

"You'll find out soon enough prisoner X, first we have to cross this to the other side." Trish mentioned, pointing in the direction they were to travel. The green slime pooling on the floor was in magnificent abundance in the large river, that is, the large river filled with,

"Dead people? Trish are they--"

"Yes, now get into the boat." she commanded, ushering him into the narrow rowboat with the large rowing stick. Tidus's usually golden complexion had turned to a ghostly pallor and he was refusing to cooperate with her.

"No way man! I-I'm not rowing across any dead bodies!" She frowned and picked him up by the collar of his shirt, dropping him into the boat.

"I didn't want to have to do this, but you've left me no choice. You see, if you would have just gone with me like I asked, I wouldn't have to overpower you and shame you for being a weak mortal."

_'Weak mortal?'_ Tidus thought, a little bewildered, _'So maybe this is her home and her employer is--no it can't be! Hold it together Tidus! Trish is not working for the Devil, that's just ridiculous!'_ He shook away the thought, but then again, he _was_ technically abducted and she never really said that she would take him to see Yuna... Tidus righted himself in the boat just as Trish dipped the stick into the glowing, chartruese water and pushed away from the shore. Tidus sighed in defeat, knowing he could never get her to turn the boat around. Deciding to accept his fate-a lot like the girl in his dream-that he was probably doomed, he subjected himself to looking over the side of the boat. Of course, this decision wsa met with a shiver of fright and sickness as he looked over the side and found millions of dead souls staring back at him with their white, glassy eyes.

The gruesome sight both fascinated and sickened him and he found himself mesmerized by the slow movement of their bodies through the eerie glowing river. As the anxiety in his body finally slowed down, he spoke to Trish,

"So, what are you anyway? How can you pick me up like I weigh nothing? And what was with the lightning yesterday? Are you like some kind of mutant or something?" Tidus laughed realizing that she was probably well-schooled in the arts of black magic, like Lulu. Trish continued rowing and simply said,

"I'm a demon."

"A WHAT!?" Tidus exclaimed, falling over the side of the boat into the river of souls in his realization and shock. He thrashed through the slime, trying to keep his head above trying to keep his head above the water as the hundreds of gruesome, slimy creatures grabbed at him, trying to pull him beneath the surface. As they grabbed at his limbs and tore at his clothes, the girl's words rang in his ears,

_'If that demon ever found me she would destroy the last of my humanity.'_ He gasped for air, realizing that he would rather die at the hands of Trish, than be another victim of the grisly "ghoul-pool".

"Trish! Help get 'em off me!" he screamed, Trish sighed in frustration and ripped him out of the water, ripping his shirt in the process as she threw him into the boat. The ghouls scrambled to crawl into the boat until Trish turned around and sent a surge of electricity through the water, stunning the souls back to their original states. Tidus shook himself like a dog, hacking and coughing up trails of mucus-like slime as he did so. The disgusting slimy substance had covered him and a puddle of it started to pool inside of the rowboat, causing Trish to scrunch up her nose in disgust.

"hack hack eeyuch! Man, I never want to see a dead corpse again, and if Yuna thinks I'm going to the farplane ever again, she's going to have to send me there first!" Tidus declared, forgetting some fo the slime that still covered his body. Trish stared at him and thought that perhaps falling into the "ghoul-pool" hadn't been as bad as she originally thought, with his wounds and the scent of the dead covering him she doubted that the lord of the dead would give them a second glance. Tidus was still breathing heavily from his exertion when he asked this question.

"So, you're a demon huh?" Trish nodded,

"Yes, you got a problem with that?" she asked, glowering at him from above her sunglasses. He put up his hands to defend himself,

"No, not really." He laughed nervously, shaking his head.

"Good." She said, refocusing on getting them to their destination. He sighed, plucking off strands of mucus-like goo from his body.

_'Well, if she is a demon, I think she's on my side, if she were evil, I don't think she would have rescued me from Butch or from my last near-death experience...' _He shivered, thinking about how he never wanted to come here again. _'But then again, she might just be doing her job, she **is** working for someone after all...but who in this world would want anything to do with me?'_ He wondered. And then he realized that the road to Yuna was even more difficult than he had originally thought. In fact, it seemed like so much of a hassle that he felt like he was in the middle of a really difficult obstacle course, standing in front of the climbing wall, and over that climbing wall was the next step to his journey. Eventually they reached the end of the river and Tidus was knocked out of his reverie. Trish hopped out of the boat first, helping Tidus out after her. He was still covered in goo and she wiped her hands on her leather pants, swallowing a grimace.

"So now what?" Tidus asked, crossing his arms. Trish pointed out a glowing prison cell just ahead of them.

"Over there." She muttered, walking over to it. Tidus sighed tiredly and reluctantly followed.

**_'Please don't let it be more dead things.'_** Tidus thought, still in shock from falling into the river. They stopped five feet away, noticing that the cell was heavily secured with giant glowing chains, preventing their entry. Sealing the cage was a large lock that looked as if it could only be opened with a key. It was far too big to move, even with Trish's inhuman strength, and Tidus didn't see how they would manually unlock it without a key. Tidus peered into the dark cell, spotting a slouched figure sitting in the corner. The figure stared back menacingly at him before getting up off of the ground and coming fully into the light. Tidus should have been intimidated by the dark form, but when he realized exactly whom he was seeing, he did a double take, his face splitting into the largest grin Trish had ever seen,

"Auron! That's Auron!" He shouted with glee, his voice echoing loudly throughout the damp cave. Auron looked up at Trish, nodding with a smirk at Tidus's excitement.

"I see you found him." He simply said. Trish nodded in agreement,

"Yes, but it was no picnic, you gave me very vague directions." Auron chuckled, and Trish was surprised that he didn't ask what happened to the boy, he still had a very visible black eye after all...

"Sorry," Auron apologized, "But my memory of Zanarkand is a little...fuzzy."

"Auron? What are you doing here?" Tidus asked, surprised to see him in a place like this, "Shouldn't you be in the farplane?" He asked, utterly confused.

"It's a long story," Auron explained, "one I would rather save for a later time, now hurry up, get me out of here." Trish looked around for something she could use as a lock pick, even checking her pockets, but what she did find, she realized probably wouldn't work on the magical lock.

"Hmm..." Trish hummed in thought.

"What is it? Can't you just use your demonic powers to break the lock?" Tidus asked hopefully, to tell you the truth, he wanted to leave this hellhole ASAP. Trish shook her head, sighing in shame at her weakness,

"I'm afraid that my power is strictly limited down here and I wouldn't dare make any moves to put any of us in jeopardy or render myself useless for that matter..."

"Huh? What do you mean? I thought you were a demon? Don't you live here?" Tidus asked, demons lived in the underworld, right?

"I am a demon, but you must understand, I don't belong to this underworld..." Tidus was confused once again,

"Huh? But I thought there was only one underworld..." Silence filled the empty cave until only the moans of the dead could be heard. It was a while before Auron spoke,

"Haven't you ever heard of Hades' rule? '_In the Underworld, heroes are zeroes.'_"

"Wait, so that means--"

"Our powers mean nothing down here." Trish finished, "Which is why we need to find the key to that lock." Tidus looked around and realized that they would need to search the place from top to bottom in order to find a key that size, and he really wasn't looking forward to finding out what was lurking in the shadows. He gulped, fearful of what Trish and Auron were expecting of him. Trish nodded as if agreeing with herself on some notion and began walking in the opposite direction.

"Hey, wait up!" He hollered, running to catch up with her.

"You should stay behind and watch for trouble, I'll be back in a second." Trish muttered, praying to God he wouldn't follow her, he was by far, the most annoying charge she had ever had to take care of and she was kind of hoping for a break, but unfortunately she wasn't that lucky...

"There's no way you're leaving me behind!"

**_'That's what I was afraid of...'_** She thought to herself.

"I'm not going to let you go alone, we don't know what kind of danger could be lurking around the corner! And besides, Auron can take care of himself!" Tidus said matter-of-factly. Trish scoffed in amusement for Tidus' latter statement.

**_'Humph, that's quite evident, the old man keeps getting locked up by Hades...Damn men and their need to protect women!' _**She thought in annoyance. She sighed in defeat,

"Fine, but if you are of any hindrance, I'm going to drag you back here and make you stay put!" Tidus scoffed in disbelief,

"And how are you going to do that?" He asked haughtily, forgetting she was a demon.

"Believe me blonde-boy, I have ways..." She said, looking at him with such a deadpanned expression that Tidus felt she was boring holes into his head. He tried to think of a snappy comeback, but was too intimidated to say anything...

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Trish and Tidus traversed further into the treacherous depths of the underworld to look for the key to Auron's cell. Auron told them that if it was anywhere down there, it would be inside of Hades' lair, so that was where they would check first. They stopped when they were nearly at the threshold as they heard voices resounding throughout the cave.

"I've told you before," Came a powerful refined voice, "I do not want your useless titans! I want that magnificent warrior you have housed in that cell near the river!" The powerful shout echoed throughout the lair, making the items on Hades' walls shiver as if fearful. Trish and Tidus peered in from behind the door as they witnessed the scene before them.

Hades was sitting on his throne of expensive jewels and human artifacts on one side of an enormous table while across from him sat a malicious-looking middle-aged man in gold and crimson magicians' robes. He had a long, ebony beard that trailed down to his belted waist, his head, perhaps once full of luxurious, ebony locks, was now balding from years of worry, anger, and stress. His face was drawn back in angry lines and his viscious-looking jaws reminded Tidus of a vampire. He had tiny, deep-set almost beady eyes that were goldenrod in color and nearly glowed in the darkness of the room.

"Hey, hey now wait just a minute... if I lend you my strongest warrior, what are you gonna do for me?" Hades inquired. The man in robes chuckled,

"Master Hades," He bowed, "I will produce for you a wondrous army of reborn!"

"Reborn huh?" He contemplated this for a second, "Uh huh, what's a reborn?" He asked in confusion. The man chuckled once again,

"Yes, I thought you might ask that, for the reborn are not well known...as of yet." The man laughed, "A reborn is the beautific fusion of a nobody and a heartless without the help of the denizen of light." He pronounced the latter statement in utter loathing, "Reborn are what that fool Ansem failed to accomplish, how do you get heartless and nobodies to breed with one another? Simply give them purpose...a reason to love....hearts."

"Okay, I don't get it, if you give minor heartless and nobodies hearts they just gobble 'em up like candy so how-"

"Yes, it is true they simply feast upon them, but if you were to force them to share the heart, they would fuse together and become as one." The man cleared his throat, "Anyway down to business, the reborn army you are to be assigned will be lead by one of my most trusted officials, Captain Blade."

"Alright! Now, this isn't going to cost me anything, like limbs or my sanity--he follows orders right!?" Hades demanded, not looking forward to a betrayal of another powerful warrior.

"Why yes of course, he will follow you until his dying breath, I will make sure of it!" The man promised.

Tidus looked at Trish, concerned.

"Well I don't have a clue what they're talking about, but it doesn't sound too good." Tidus whispered. Trish's eyes found a hallway leading into another room and presumed that that was where they would find the key they needed.

"Alright, we're going to have to find a way to get into that room over there, I think that's where he keeps the keys." Trish concluded.

"But Trish, we can't go in there-"

"Shh! Yes we can, I've got a plan, give me your jacket!" Tidus quickly removed his jacket, revealing his well-muscled physique.

"Your pendant too, otherwise it won't look as convincing." He pulled the pendant over his head and stuffed it in his pocket. Trish spotted a rusty chain hanging on the wall and pulled it down, inspecting it for a lock. She found one and set down the chain for a moment, reaching over to mess up his hair and then bent over, scooped up a handful of black dirt and threw it in his face. He coughed and sputtered, not sure what was going on.

"ACHOO! hack hack Hey!" He squealed, still choking on dust, "Hey Trish, what exactly are we doing and what's with the dirt are you pissed at me or something?" He asked as she wrapped the chain around his wrists and locked them in place.

"Oh, nothing it's just I trick I learned back in my world...you're going to be my slave boy." His eyes went wide and he almost choked again with surprise at the simple statement.

"Whoa, what did you say?"

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"Now milord Hades, about that warrior..." the robed man began, only to be interrupted by a powerful, commanding female shout.

"Stop right there milord!" Trish commanded, adding an alluring swing to her hips, "You have not yet heard all of the offers yet, you wouldn't so foolishly trade away your greatest treasure to someone who would so unjustly use it?" She questioned righteously. Hades was certainly not in the mood for this interruption and blew up in her face at the rude interjection, flames and all.

"HOW DARE YOU CRITISISE MY DECISIONS, THIS IS MY UNDERWORLD!" Trish simply stood there, unfazed by his temper tantrum, she had had worse done to her in her own underworld. She laughed at his reaction, smiling slyly.

"I wasn't trying to critisise you darling, only stop you from making a huge mistake."

"Who the hell are you to think you can come in here and assume things!?" He yelled, still enraged.

"I am Josephine milord, a servant of Emperor Mundus." She lied sweetly.

"Mundus!? I want nothing to do with _that _poor excuse for a demon lord!" Trish smiled again.

"Hmph, he thought you might say something along those lines... You see, Lord Mundus has constructed a new legion of demons in your glorious name, it would be a shame for them to go to waste." He glared at her, not believing a word she said.

"Demons? In my name? What kind of a joke is this?" Hades demanded. The heartless lord nodded his head in agreement.

"Yes, I agree it seems awfully suspiscious what with you and Mundus being enemies and all... And do these demons not require a commanding officer? You can't have your minions running amuck you know." the robed man mentioned. Tidus started to worry as he looked into the room, how on earth was Trish supposed to pull this one off? Especially when the guy that she was supposed to be working for was enemies with Hades?

"Why, of course they don't require a commanding officer! They are trained to follow none other than Lord Hades himself! And if you're still not satisfied," She tugged on the end of the rusty chain she held, sending Tidus flying into the room and sprawling upon the conference table. She held the chain tightly around her wrist as she held him on the table, her stiletto heel digging into his back. Tidus grunted in pain at the latter. "I even have a complimentary slave boy for your troubles." Hades studied Tidus for a moment,

"Hmm, a little too pretty for my tastes, but not bad..." Tidus arched a brow at the comment, "Is he trained?" Hades asked.

"Why yes of course, he is very obedient and will obey none other than his master." Trish answered, "In fact, why don't I prove to you just how obedient he is," She picked him up off of the table none too gently and shoved him in the direction of Hades' chambers, earning another pained grunt from him. "Boy! Go clean Milord Hades' chambers and be quick about it!" She yelled with a powerful, commanding voice befitting a demon heiress. She released his chain and he bowed reluctantly, hating his servant role, but fearful of envoking Hades' wrath at the same time,

"Uh, y-yes ma'am right away!" He stuttered, catching Trish's wink as he hurriedly escaped into the next room.

"I think I've got a winner!" Hades announced, turning to Trish. Trish smirked victoriously.

"What!?" The robed man wailed, " But this is an outrage, an abomination! Now see here demon! You can't just burst in here and-" the robed man cried, only to be interrupted by Trish,

"I would keep my mouth shut if I were you, you're the one who demanded his warrior in the first place Milord....um..." She looked at him in askance for his name.

"Dragoon. But that's Master Dragoon to the likes of you, you demon filth! Lord Hades, surely you can reconsider this offer!" He argued. Trish knew that she had to keep the other two arguing or else Tidus may not have time to find that key, she figured that it wouldn't be too difficult, she'd learned more than enough tricks living in Hell.

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As Tidus entered Hades' chambers he felt a deep sense of impending doom. Fumes of darkness pervaded the room, adding to the already creepy atmosphere. He didn't have to go far before he found keys, a whole slew of them, covering the wall to his right. He sighed in frustration,

"How am I supposed to know which one goes to the lock?" He looked closely at each of the keys, but there was no way he could tell if any of them would fit, he guessed that they would just have to take their chances. He lifted his head and looked around the room for anything he might have missed and there it was...hanging on the wall, the largest most menacing-looking key he'd ever seen. Two large demonic purple eyes decorated the handle as they stared back at him from across the room. It was the exact size of Auron's lock! It was the key they were looking for!

"But, how in the world am I supposed to sneak this out of here without-" Just as he grabbed it off of the wall, the key shrunk to the size of all of the others and fit easily into his pocket. Tidus sighed with relief as he pocketed the locking mechanism, they would finally be getting out of here! Just as the thought crossed his mind, Hades' bellow resounded throughout the cave,

"BOY! COME HERE!" Tidus gulped, a little fearful, what trouble had Trish gotten him into now? He reluctantly answered Hades' call and appeared at his side.

"Uh yes M-Master Hades?" He asked, bowing his head and keeping his eyes glued to the floor.

"Please show Master Dragoon the way out!" Hades bellowed angrily. Dragoon's anger had distorted his face and made him even more frightening than he already was,

"Alright Hades if that is how you want to play, my reborn army will crush your pitiful demon one, and when you are begging on the ground for my mercy, I will not give it, but slay you and your allies and take this land for my own!" Tidus took the man's bags and began walking toward the door as he said this sentence, "You have not seen the last of me lord of the underworld!" He began following Tidus out of the lair and once down by Auron's cell, stopped. Auron spotted Tidus in his slave garb and raised a questioning brow, Tidus shrugged and smiled, a little degraded. Dragoon looked into the cell of his desired warrior and sighed, "Someday, my magnificent warrior I will have thee within my grasp..." Tidus interrupted his thoughts with this comment,

"Um sir, shall I put your baggage into the boat?" Dragoon shook his head, a little annoyed at being brought back to reality.

"I have no need for a boat, I shall travel through the Realm of Darkness." Tidus nodded, a little frightened and confused at the same time, **_'realm of darkness? what the heck is he talking about?'_**

"Um, okay." The man stood back and held an arm out, summoning a black hole with which he ordered Tidus to toss his bags into and afterward walked into himself, disappearing from the underworld. Tidus sighed with relief, hanging his head, "Well, I'm glad that that's over!"

"Do you have that key yet?" Auron asked, seemingly annoyed by the long wait.

"Oh yeah that's right, I almost forgot!" Tidus laughed, pulling it out of his pocket. At once the key grew back to it's normal size, almost making Tidus fall over with it's sudden heaviness. "Whoa! Heh, I don't remember it being this heavy!" He laughed as he fit it into the lock. The key immediatly spun into the lock and the lock realeased it's hold on the cell door, dropping to the floor and disintigrating into black ash, leaving nothing but the over-sized key. Auron stood up and easily pushed the cell door open.

"Let's go." He simply said, hefting his heavy sword over his one good shoulder. Tidus nodded in agreement but immediately thought of something,

"Hey, what about Trish!?"

"It's alright, she can take care of herself, she's a demon remember? Anyway, we need to get as far away as possible from Hades. Olympus would be our best bet for now, at least until Trish can get away." Tidus nodded his agreement.

"Okay, I'm with you all the way Auron!" He pumped his arm with gusto and Auron was immediately reminded of the old days, traveling with the largest summoner's party in the history of Spira, the days when he'd never really thought that their actions would forever effect Spira's way of life. And with that thought, he would imagine that Tidus was just as eager to find a way back to Spira as he was. Auron nodded and led the way, he knew the land well, he'd planned many an escape route here.

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Well, that took me forever to write! Originally I was going to write more, like about how they made it out of the Underworld, how Tidus finally finds Yuna (I was going to use the ending to FFX-2 the happy one, with my own twist) eventually I will write what happens but every time I try to write it it seems that I accidentally delete it! So I am just going to end on this note, that way I can start the next chapter of this on an exciting note! Well I haven't really gotten any reviews from any Final Fantasy X fans that have been really excited about this chapter so I'm assuming that you guys want to move on anyway! ^^

**Tidus: Oh come on, you just don't want to write about me anymore, admit it! D;**

**JoBro-Fangirl: Actually you're right, I was trying to be nice but you're absolutely right!**

**Tidus: Well gee thanks, now instead of spending these months until you get back to my part of the story with Yuna, I have to spend it in the Underworld! Thanks a lot! D=**

Anyway, moving on, the next chapter is Kingdom Hearts which (thankfully) I have planned out to a T.

**Tidus: Hey, wait a second, how the heck are you going to write that chapter when we both know that Wakka and I were in the first Kingdom Hearts game as kids?**

**JoBro-Fangirl: What are you rambling on about?**

**Tidus: _ Uh, we were kids in that game, JoBro-Fangirl...**

**JoBro-Fangirl: What? Tidus you-so-crazy! :P**

**Tidus: No seriously!**

**JoBro-Fangirl: If you were kids in that game, then how the hell is my plot going to work?**

**Tidus: Exactly!**

**JoBro-Fangirl: Duh! You're not a kid! Adults aren't kids...well maybe sometimes...**

**Tidus: *palms forehead* Egads, are you really a fanfiction writer? I really wonder about that sometimes...**

Well, I know it's early to say this but have a Happy Halloween and remember when you read and review, it's like the sweetest of candies! =D


	8. Message in a Bottle preview

**Hey everybody! JoBro-fangirl here with another update! I know you must be overwhelmed with shock at how fast I updated this time! (Ha Not!) Actually this is just a preview for my next chapter, I know that all of you have been waiting for months on end for me to finish it and I am sorry! ;( Why am I posting a preview instead of the actual chapter? You see, unfortunately I seemed to have misplaced the written material I had on this chapter and I'm going to have to try and rewrite it all from memory. This preview was written before that happened so this is the original material that you're going to be reading. However I may not get to writing the rest for a while because of schoolwork and adult responsibilities but I hope that you enjoy what I have written so far and maybe this will tide you over till I post the rest. Well, hopefully I have some Kingdom Hearts fans out there because this is what this chapter is about! And I know that I have labeled this story M and believe me, it is labeled that for a reason! Not for this chapter or any other KH chapter because even you guys know that Disney would have a heart attack if someone wrote a SMUT for Kingdom Hearts! (Not that they aren't on this website…I'm sure if you look hard enough, you could find one!) But my KH portions are sooo not going to be smutty, if anything they'll be fluffy, because I just feel that the characters are too young and that the setting is too innocent. But if you do want smut with this genre, stick around for my next KH fic, oh yes, there will be smut, you'll see….hehehe. Anyway I have labeled it M for Resident Evil and Devil May Cry respectably. So on with the story! (yeah, that next KH fic is probably not going to happen for a while! ^^;)  
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**Disclaimer: If I owned it, there wouldn't be so many freaking damsels in distress!**

_(By the way, this chapter begins after Kingdom Hearts II, the morning after they arrive back on the island. Forgive me if I get the time line at the end of the game mixed up! My brother says I did, you guys can tell me if he's right! ;))  
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**Chapter 7**

**Message in a Bottle**

"_**My crown is in my heart, not on my head."**_

_**-Shakespeare-**_

"Sora! Wake up!" Kairi hollered as she tossed pebbles up into Sora's open window, "Come on! We're going to be late! Riku's already waiting for us on the island!" Kairi was beyond frustrated as she picked up a huge rock to throw at his window. She reasoned that if she could hit him hard enough in the head, he would wake up, or receive a concussion, she hoped for the former. Unfortunately she dropped the rock, causing it to land on her toe and initiate a painful shriek from her lips.

After being hit with more than twenty pebbles and then hearing a painful shriek from Kairi, Sora worriedly tossed the bed sheet over his head, thinking something bad had happened to the princess of heart. He immediately regretted the action as the sun burned eyes that were the same shade as the deep blue sea. Shading his eyes from the harsh sunlight, Sora peered down over his windowsill, scanning the terrain for the impatient little nymph who had been shouting and throwing rocks at him for about an hour or so. The sight of burgundy-red hair glistening in the sunlight gave her away immediately. Spotting his profile in the second-story window, Kairi sighed with relief,

"You're finally awake!" She giggled, suddenly forgetting her hurt toe as she shaded her eyes from the sunlight. Seeing that she was perfectly fine, he sighed with relief, yet Sora wasn't too happy at being awoken two hours before his normal time and with sleepy eyes asked,

"Kairi, why'd you wake me up so early?" She laughed,

"You lazy bum! Quit complaining, I woke you up later than most people sleep, now get dressed so you can meet us on the island!" He smirked at her retort,

'_**Lazy bum huh? Heh, you really don't know how much I've missed that nickname…'**_ He thought, thinking it strange that the nickname he used to despise was suddenly music to his ears. Well, now that he thought about it, the only person who could call him that without offending him was Kairi. He looked down at her, staring up at him with her aquamarine eyes, sparkling like diamonds on water. There was no way he could refuse those magnificent eyes, they were his weakness, and as his enemies often said, his downfall. He nodded his head, signaling that he was complying to her wishes.

"Yeah, okay whatever…" He mumbled, his voice hoarse from lack of use. He rubbed his eyes as he watched Kairi skip merrily towards the beach, her long mane of red hair glistening in the morning sun. Suddenly he wondered what it would be like to run his fingers through her long silky strands, would it feel as soft and smooth as satin? Or maybe even softer? Sora shook his head, what was he thinking? He'd only gotten back from his adventure and he was already thinking about Kairi in inappropriate ways! Jeeze, hormone attack! He'd told himself that he wasn't going to be disappointed if Kairi turned him down, if she didn't like him in the same way, then that was that. For now, they were just friends and he was going to respect that. Sora stretched his arms up over his head, his body yawning in protest at his lack of sleep. He looked down towards his pillow, truly considering climbing back underneath the covers. He reconsidered his actions when he thought of Riku and Kairi storming into his house and dragging him out of bed and he decided that it was best not to ignore his friends for too long, he wouldn't dare put it past them to do something like that…

His stomach growled and rumbled hungrily, snapping him out of his thoughts and he realized that he hadn't really eaten since before he, Donald and Goofy decided to invade the World that Never Was. That, plus the beatings he'd taken from Xemnas proved to be a good enough reason to lounge in bed all day.

After all that had happened yesterday, he didn't really know how Riku was already out on the island, the energy that was drained from his body when he got rid of the remaining nobodies couldn't have returned that easily could it? Ever since he and Riku were kids he'd always thought that Riku was invincible, and now he truly believed it. But then again, Riku had been living like that for the past year, so it was probably natural for him to rise early, the forces of darkness probably had something to do with that…

Sora realized that he was still fully clothed and deducted that he had probably fallen asleep before his mother was done lecturing him the night before, defeating Xemnas was definitely not something his body was used to, no matter how long he'd been on his quest... Sora looked around his room, it was the same way he'd left it when he began his life-changing journey over a year ago. And knowing his mother, she probably sobbed her heart out and refused to move any of his stuff in hopes that he would come back and take care of it himself. And as stubborn a woman she was, she had waited a whole year.

Sora slipped his bruised and battered body out of bed, flinching as he rolled over onto a sensitive area which he'd later found out to be a large burn on his right shoulder caused by one of Xemnas' ethereal blades...ouch. He pressed his open palm to his chest and silently commanded, _**'Heal.'**_ A bright green light issued forth from his fingertips and soothed his wounds giving him his energy back.

He quietly opened his bedroom door in hopes that he wouldn't alert a certain flustered mother to his presence. He tiptoed to the top of the staircase and looked around for any sign of her. Finding none, he silently crept downstairs, wincing every time one of the boards creaked. He had to admit, learning to sneak around in enemy territory was going to come in handy...big time. That was when the smell hit him, the smell every child on the island steered clear of every Sunday morning, his mother's breakfast casserole. The smell that Sora could never avoid, nor escape. It was both disgusting in taste and smell, but for some reason he could never man up and tell her that her cooking was crap, he was just too nice, something else his enemies had mentioned would be his downfall... Sora's mother, Leona made her infamous breakfast casserole out of all the leftover breakfast food she had made earlier in the week, she also added curry, wheat grass and for a reason Sora could never begin to understand, disgusting okra. Every friend Sora had made it a point not to visit his home on Sunday mornings or sleep over on Saturday night for they knew that they too would be treated to the horrifying casserole. In Sora's opinion, it wasn't too bad, he liked the curry, it was just the awful smelling wheat grass and the okra that made him have indigestion if he ate too much of it.

Seriously, what was he? A goat? Sora knew that his mother, Leona was attempting to make him eat healthier and had been doing so for a few years now. She was convinced that he had a growth problem because he was a whole lot shorter than Riku who was only a year older than him and he was barely taller than Kairi who was a girl and by nature-in her opinion- was supposed to be shorter. She was convinced that it was all her fault for providing him with all of those sugar-filled treats when he was younger, so she cut them out entirely and started providing him with nutritious, protein-filled, health snacks, something Sora hadn't been too thrilled with...

Instead of forcing himself to eat her casserole, he decided he was going to sneak out and buy ice cream or something from one of the vendors in town. Yet the aroma of a nice healthy breakfast filled the house and the growling of his stomach made him truly consider eating his mother's terrible food, after all, he really hadn't had a decent meal since, well he couldn't remember when... But when he felt even Roxas grimace with disgust, he decided it was time to high-tail it out of there. He was almost free when she caught him,

"And where do you think you're going young man?" Came a smooth, irate voice from the kitchen. Sora froze in his tracks, already knowing he didn't have much of an explanation for her.

"Well, um I was just...going to the island! Kairi will get angry if I keep her waiting too long!" He said matter-of-factly, scratching the back of his head nervously as he gave her his signature wide-toothed grin. His mother had cried and whined to him when he'd come home last night, not to mention had given him one of her yelling, screaming lectures that had woken up all of the neighbors about where he'd been for a year, why he hadn't come home, and how much emotional stress he'd put her through all of those long months, _"I had to spend Christmas alone!" _she'd cried. Luckily Donald and Goofy had been there to help him explain the situation since he was nearly comatose after his battle with Xemnas and his long swim to the island.

His mother crossed her arms, flipping her short, engine-red hair,

"You need to eat breakfast young man, Kairi can wait." She said to him in a commanding tone. Sora sighed in defeat, letting go of the doorknob and taking a seat for breakfast. His mother smiled at the reaction she gained from her son, knowing that it was the smell of her casserole that had made him want to flee. Sora, waiting for the disgusting fare to scorn his plate was then surprised by a normal plate of eggs, pancakes and sausage instead.

_**'Well, now I'm glad I didn't skip breakfast!'**_ He thought, stuffing three fork-fulls of pancakes into his mouth before chugging his milk and scarfing down the rest of his breakfast.

"You know, if you eat too fast, you're going to have heartburn." His mother chided.

"I'm done." He announced seconds later, hitting his chest as his body tried to force the food down his esophagus. He quickly got up, knocking over his chair as he bolted for the door. The chair hit the floor and made another mark on the worn linoleum floor.

"It's good to have him back again." His mother shook her head as the slamming of the screen door was heard through the hallway. She sighed, surprisingly happy with something that had once irritated her to no end.

* * *

Upon reaching the island, Sora took a deep breath of the tropical sea breeze, he had missed the smell of mango, coconut and sea-salt and had found nothing like it in any of the worlds he'd been to. He looked around for Kairi, but at the moment, she was no where to be seen.

* * *

**Hey guys I hope that you enjoyed this preview and I'll try to get back to you with the next part ASAP! Forgive me! :{**


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